Evaluation of Antimicrobial Efficacy of Three Commercially Available Herbal Mouthwashes - An In Vitro Comparative Study

Abstract

Background: Today several mouthwashes are flooding the market including various herbal products. It is important to know their antimicrobial efficacy before the clinical use. Hence in the current investigation, we compared the antimicrobial efficacy of three commercially available herbal mouthwashes against four periopathogens. Methodology: In this in vitro study, comparative evaluation of antimicrobial efficacy of three commercially available herbal mouthwashes i.e Oramint herbal mouthwash, Hiora mouthwash and Colgate plax fresh tea mouthwash were tested against four different microbial strains namely Streptococcus mutans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Candida albicans and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. Determination of microbial sensitivity was done using ditch plate diffusion method and the zone of inhibition was measured. Results: The tested herbal mouthwashes demonstrated varying degree of antimicrobial activity against the selected pathogens. The zone of inhibition was concentration dependent for all the three mouthwashes and maximum effectiveness was observed at a concentration of 75µL/mL. Among the three mouthwashes, Oramint mouthwash showed maximum efficacy against all the pathogens except Candida albicans. Hiora and Colgate plax mouthwashes showed comparable antifungal activity and were highly effective in inhibiting Candida albicans. On intergroup comparison, the difference in the mean zones of inhibition of all the tested herbal mouthwashes was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Oramint mouthwash outshined the other two mouthwashes and showed maximum antimicrobial activity against all the examined microbes except Candida albicans. Hiora mouthwash and Colgate plax fresh tea extract mouthwash demonstrated good antifungal activity against Candida albicans. However, future clinical studies are needed to confirm the obtained results.