Antibacterial Activity ofMyristica fragransagainst Oral Pathogens

Zaleha Shafiei,Nordiyana Md Fazly Shah Yap,Carrie-Anne Harry Sibungkil,Nadia Najwa Shuhairi,Jalifah Latip

doi:10.1155/2012/825362

Zaleha Shafiei, Nordiyana Md Fazly Shah Yap + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/825362

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Abstract

Myristica fragrans Houtt is mostly cultivated for spices in Penang Island, Malaysia. The ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts of flesh, mace and seed of Myristica fragrans was evaluated the bactericidal potential against three Gram-positive cariogenic bacteria (Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175, Streptococcus mitis ATCC 6249, and Streptococcus salivarius ATCC 13419) and three Gram-negative periodontopathic bacteria (Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans ATCC 29522, Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC 33277, and Fusobacterium nucleatum ATCC 25586). Antibacterial activities of the extracts was determined by twofold serial microdilution, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) ranging from 1.25 to 640 mg/mL and 0.075 to 40 mg/mL. The minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) was obtained by subculturing method. Among all extracts tested, ethyl acetate extract of flesh has the highest significant inhibitory effects against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with mean MIC value ranging from 0.625 to 1.25 ± 0.00 (SD) mg/mL; P = 0.017) and highest bactericidal effects at mean MBC value ranging from 0.625 mg/mL to 20 ± 0.00 (SD) mg/mL. While for seed and mace of Myristica fragrans, their ethanol extracts exhibited good antibacterial activity against both groups of test pathogens compared to its ethyl acetate extracts. All of the extracts of Myristica fragrans did not show any antibacterial activities against Fusobacterium nucleatum ATCC 25586. Thus, our study showed the potential effect of ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts from flesh, seed and mace of Myristica fragrans to be new natural agent that can be incorporated in oral care products.

Highlights

Dental caries and periodontal disease are complex multifactorial diseases with dental plaque as their primary cause [1]
The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts from flesh, mace, and seed of Myristica fragrans against oral pathogens were specified in Tables 2 and 3
The low MIC and MBC values indicated that the extract has strong antibacterial activity

Summary

Introduction

Dental caries and periodontal disease are complex multifactorial diseases with dental plaque as their primary cause [1]. Gram-positive bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus, Lactobacillus species and some nonmutans streptococci are closely associated with caries formation [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Gram-negative bacteria such as Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is associated with aggressive periodontitis [9], while Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Campylobacter rectus are associated with chronic periodontitis in adult [10]. There are high interests in oral care products that are incorporated with medicinal plant extracts and are used extensively by the consumers due to low toxicity compared to oral care products containing antimicrobial agents such as triclosan, cetylpyridinium chloride, chlorhexidine, and amine fluorides that are reported to exhibit toxicity and cause staining of the teeth [11, 12]. It is well established that many metabolites produced by plant extracts such as tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, and flavonoids provide new source of antimicrobial substances that help in combating new developing drug resistant pathogens [13,14,15]

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