No abstract

Plant materials were known as source of new antimicrobial agents. Many efforts have been made to develop alternative mouth rinses from natural products which are safe, easily available and substitute the standard pharmaceutical remedies. Thus, considering the therapeutic value of pomegranate fruit, the present study was designed to compare the antimicrobial efficacy of aqueous extract of Pomegranate pericarp and commercially available Chlorhexidine mouth wash against caries causative microorganisms both in vitro and in vivo. To evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of pomegranate pericarp extract (PPE) against Streptococcus mutans (S.mutans) and to determine its usefulness as anti caries mouth rinse. In vitro antimicrobial efficacy was evaluated by disc inhibition zone method and broth dilution assay considering minimum inhibitory concentration of PPE. In vivo evaluation was done as a randomised controlled trial which included thirty children aged between 6-12 years. They were divided randomly into 3 groups of ten each and subjected to different mouth rinses - Group I: PPE mouth rinse, Group II: 0.2% Chlorhexidine mouth rinse and Group III: Distilled water (control). The salivary samples which were collected before and after (5 minutes) mouth rinsing were inoculated on Mutans Sanguis agar and the bacterial count was calculated.Statistically significant decrease in salivary S.mutans count was observed in group I and II compared to group III after mouth rinsing. However, there was no statistically significant difference between groups I and II. PPE mouthwash was effective in reducing the salivary S.mutans count and was comparable to chlorhexidine mouth rinse. Hence PPE mouth rinse may be considered as a potential anti caries mouth rinse.