The effect of antimicrobial activity of Teucrium Polium on Oral Streptococcus Mutans: a randomized cross-over clinical trial study

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of a mouthwash containing Teucriumpolium herb on Streptococcus mutans in mouth. Methods: This study was a randomized, crossover, double-blind clinical trial, where we selected 22 volunteers (dental students) randomly and we divided them into two groups. The study had two phases. In each phase, one group acted as the intervention group, while the other one was the control group. Both the intervention and control groups were given the mouthwash with and without Teucriumpolium, respectively. S. mutans of saliva were measured before and after each phase to compare the effects of the mouthwashes. A three-week washout period was considered between the two phases. An independent two-sample t-test was utilized to compare the mean of S. mutans colonies. Additionally, we used a standard AB/BA crossover model to find the results of the treatment and the impact of carryover on the residual's biological effects. The significance level was considered 0.05 in this experiment. Results: There is no significant difference observed between the two groups in the number of S. mutans before using the mouthwashes. When the mouthwash containing Teucriumpolium was used, there was a significant decrease in the number of S. mutans colonies in both phases' extract (P = 0.002). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the mouthwash containing aqueous extract of Teucrium polium can majorly reduce the colonization of S. mutans in human saliva. Trial registration: Ethical issues approved by the Ethics Committee of the Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences with the approval number of 937/9/31, IRCT code Number of IRCT2013121815842N1 and it was approved on 06/ 16/2014. The study was conducted in the period of September to November 2014.

Teucrium polium: new toxic effects added to the literature: a case report

“…Teucrium polium or germander is a type of peppermint, a kind of aromatic plant that mainly grows in the Mediterranean region 4 , 5 . Germander has been used as an herbal medicine throughout centuries for gastrointestinal disorders, kidney problems, wound healing, and diabetes, and mostly by Mediterranean people 4 . Throughout history, natural products helped in manufacturing anti-diabetic drugs, for example, the discovery of metformin from Galega Officinalis 5 .…”

Plant-Derived Compounds: A Promising Tool for Dental Caries Prevention

“…These slabs were then transferred to a laboratory environment to be treated with herbal extracts and to assess the differences in the total oral microbiome after treatment [78]. The rest of the studies may be characterized as in vivo clinical studies, since the anticaries effects of plant-derived compounds are tested on living organisms (human volunteers) in the oral environment [74][75][76][77]79]. The study designs of these in vivo studies present discrepancies regarding the number of participants, the compounds evaluated, the dosage form of the plant-derived compound, the duration of the intervention, the choice of control groups, the methodological analysis used, and the geographic origin of the research.…”

“…Two in vivo studies used high-dental-caries-risk children [74,76] (one of them used children diagnosed with Early Childhood Caries [76]). Three in vivo studies evaluated the impact of plant-derived extracts on the prevention of dental caries in children [74,76,77], and two in vivo studies used adult volunteers [75,79]. Concerning the dosage form evaluated in the studies, two in vivo protocols used plant-derived extracts as the basic component of fabricated lollipops [74,77], two other studies used the tested plant-derived compounds as constituents of a fabricated mouthwash [75,79], and one other in vivo study incorporated the plant-derived extract as part of a restorative material (GIC + miswak extracts) [76].…”

“…Three in vivo studies evaluated the impact of plant-derived extracts on the prevention of dental caries in children [74,76,77], and two in vivo studies used adult volunteers [75,79]. Concerning the dosage form evaluated in the studies, two in vivo protocols used plant-derived extracts as the basic component of fabricated lollipops [74,77], two other studies used the tested plant-derived compounds as constituents of a fabricated mouthwash [75,79], and one other in vivo study incorporated the plant-derived extract as part of a restorative material (GIC + miswak extracts) [76]. Some of the studies used as control groups the lack of exposure to the plant extract (placebo) [74,75,77], while some others used chlorhexidine and distilled water [76,78,79].…”

“…Concerning the dosage form evaluated in the studies, two in vivo protocols used plant-derived extracts as the basic component of fabricated lollipops [74,77], two other studies used the tested plant-derived compounds as constituents of a fabricated mouthwash [75,79], and one other in vivo study incorporated the plant-derived extract as part of a restorative material (GIC + miswak extracts) [76]. Some of the studies used as control groups the lack of exposure to the plant extract (placebo) [74,75,77], while some others used chlorhexidine and distilled water [76,78,79]. Regarding the bacterial strain investigated, two studies tried to evaluate and identify the total oral microbiome [74,78], whereas some other studies stuck to the perception that S. mutans is the abundant cariogenic microorganism and used it as the chosen bacterial strain [75][76][77]79].…”