Minakshi Pandey* and R. Senthilkumar
Background: Dental caries is a common chronic oral disease that affects people all over the world. It is caused by the etiological agent oral streptococci, which releases virulence factors and causes an imbalance in the mouth biota ecological system. The use of ethno-medicinal plant part crude extracts and herbs as a biocontrol agent for commercially available chemical manufactured medications has recently gained a lot of traction in the fight against the pathogenesis of oral illness and disorders such periodontal disease and dental caries. Citrus maxima (Rutaceae) a widely known therapeutic shrub in ayurveda in India is a promising possibility to increase the inhibitory impact endured as antimicrobial agents through synergism. The goal of this study was to see how effective Citrus maxima peel extracts were at preventing carcinogenesis in common but important oral pathogenic bacteria: Streptococcus mutans, S. sanguis, S. salivarius, S. sobrinus, and S. mitis.
Material & Method: The phytochemical study was analysed for fraction of Citrus maxima fruits and peels imparted the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, anthraquinones, carotenoid, coumarin, tannin, phenols, saponins, terpenoids, steroids and amino acids. By determining the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC), the antibacterial activity was studied utilising the Disc infusion technique (MBC). The extracts were made by serial dilution (dilution by half) with sterile distilled water solvent utilising water, ethanol, and chloroform at various concentrations. On Brain Heart Infusion agar, the crude extracts were tested along with Ampicillin as a positive control and water as a negative control.
Result: Results indicated that Citrus maxima crude extracts had an antibacterial activity against oral streptococci and exhibited a wide range of inhibition. The extracts were significantly potent against the bacterial strains in concentrations up to 3.9 and 250 μg/mL respectively. The extracts were shown to be less efficient on S. mitis and more efficient on S. sanguis, S. salivarius where ethanol extract showed highest efficiency in comparison with Ampicillin.
Conclusions: The findings exhibited in this research study provides the scientific evidence for the primal usage of plant extract as a medicinal ethno-nutraceutical. The antimicrobial activity quantified by appreciable bacterial sensitivity interprets Citrus maxima is considered to be effective persuasive therapeutic stand in compared to synthetic medicines.
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