Abstract
The comparative study on the antimicrobial activity of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of four chewing sticks (Anacardium occidentale, Azadirachta indica, Psidium guajava and Vernonia amygdalina) and two herbal tubes of toothpaste (Darbur® and Macleans®) against Streptococcus mutans were evaluated in this study. The preliminary phytochemical screening of ethanolic extract of cashew and neem miswaks (also known as chewing sticks or teeth cleaning twigs made from plants) revealed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, saponin, tannins, flavonoids and carbohydrate. Aqueous extract revealed the presence of saponin, alkaloids, steroids, and carbohydrates for cashew miswak while flavonoids, alkaloids and carbohydrates were revealed for neem miswak. There was no antibacterial activity observed against Streptococcus mutans by aqueous extracts of Vernonia amygdalina, Azadirachta indica and Anacardium occidentale miswak. The ethanol extract of A. indica had a mean zone of inhibition of 19.6±0.9 mm at 40 mg/ml compared with ethanol extract of A. occidentale 9.3±0.6 mm at the same concentration. Better antibacterial activity was observed for aqueous extract of Psidium guava compared to the ethanolic extract of the same plant. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between the activity of Macleans® and Darbur® herbal toothpaste with the mean zone of inhibition being 27.3±0.9 mm and 25.7±1.5 mm. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration values observed for ethanolic extract of neem and cashew were 0.625 mg/ml and 2.5 mg/ml respectively while that of herbal tubes of toothpaste examined was 0.313 mg/ml. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between herbal toothpaste and nature’s miswak. The herbal toothpaste used in this study had a much better antibacterial activity than the chewing sticks.
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