Abstract
Dental diseases refer to conditions of deterioration and disintegration of the oral cavity due to the activities of pathogenic microbes. This study was carried out to determine the antibacterial activity of aqueous and ethanol extracts of Phoenix dactylifera L. (Date palm) seed on selected bacteria isolates associated with dental caries namely Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei. Bioactive components of the seed were extracted using water and ethanol as solvents. The antibacterial activity of the extracts was examined by agar well diffusion method. The minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations (MIC and MBC) were also determined using standard methods. All extracts were active against the tested isolates at the concentrations examined. L. casei was the most susceptible organism followed by S. mutans. S. aureus was the least susceptible. Ethanolic extract was more effective than aqueous extract at all the concentrations tested in the study. The MIC of aqueous and ethanolic extracts was 20 mg/ml while the MBC was 80 mg/ml respectively against all the bacterial isolates tested. It can be concluded that the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the seed possess antibacterial potential against all the test organisms and could be useful in treatment of dental diseases and other related diseases caused by the bacteria isolates tested in the study.
Highlights
The microbial biota of the oral/buccal cavity is enormous ranging from beneficial to pathogenic organisms
When there is a disturbance in the microbial community even non-pathogenic organisms could become opportunistic pathogens Dental disease occurs as a resulting effect of the disturbance of the equilibrium of this complex ecosystem, this disturbance results in a population shift leading to over representation of pathogenic species and normal biota becoming opportunistic pathogens contributing to the onset and progression of oral diseases such as caries and periodontal disease (Kuboniwa et al, 2012; Adolph et al, 2017)
The results obtained from this study showed that the growths of the tested organisms (S. aureus, S. mutans and L. casei) were inhibited at all the concentrations examined in both the aqueous and ethanolic extracts (Tables 1 and 2)
Summary
The microbial biota of the oral/buccal cavity is enormous ranging from beneficial to pathogenic organisms. When there is a disturbance in the microbial community even non-pathogenic organisms could become opportunistic pathogens Dental disease occurs as a resulting effect of the disturbance of the equilibrium of this complex ecosystem, this disturbance results in a population shift leading to over representation of pathogenic species and normal biota becoming opportunistic pathogens contributing to the onset and progression of oral diseases such as caries and periodontal disease (Kuboniwa et al., 2012; Adolph et al, 2017). Oral pathogens are not exempted from the ability of a microbe to resist the effects of medication previously used to treat them; these resistant microbes are more difficult to treat, requiring alternative medications or higher doses, both of which may be more expensive or more toxic necessitating a need for an alternative therapy (Bagramia et al, 2009; Bonecjer et al, 2013)
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