A Comparative Study of the Antimicrobial Activity of Selected Herbal Toothpastes and their Non-Herbal Counterparts Against Oral Isolates in Sagamu, Nigeria.

Background: In recent years in Nigeria, there has been an upsurge in the marketing and utilization of herbal toothpastes alongside their non–herbal counterparts that had been in use to improve oral health.Objective: This study was carried out to compare the antimicrobial activity of herbal toothpastes and their non-herbal counterparts against oral isolates.Methodology: Microorganisms were isolated from early morning mouth rinses of volunteer subjects and identified using standard protocols. A total of four brands of toothpastes (four herbal and their non-herbal counterparts) making a total of eight toothpastes labeled A, C, E, G (herbal toothpastes) B, D, F, H (non-herbal) were procured, diluted into three different concentrations of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:4 by two-folds serial dilution and tested for their antimicrobial activity against oral isolates using agar well diffusion method. Inhibition zone diameters (IZDs) were measured in millimeters after 24h incubation at 25oC (fungal isolates) and 37oC (bacterial isolates). Result analysis was done by SPSS using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significance taken at p<0.05.Results: The isolates were identified as Staphylococcus aureus (SA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) and Candida albicans (CA). The undiluted Paste A gave the highest IZD of 22 mm against SA and the least IZD was 0.0 mm by paste A against CA at 1:2 dilution, paste C at 1:2 dilution against CA and paste E at 1:1 dilution against CA and thereby making CA the least responsive to all the concentrations of toothpaste evaluated. On the whole, the herbal toothpastes gave a better IZD than their non- herbal counterparts. At p<0.05, there was no significant difference in the overall activity between the herbal toothpastes and their non-herbal counterparts.Conclusion: The result shows that the herbal toothpastes were marginally better in the inhibition of the isolates than their non-herbal counterparts, though their overall difference is not significant, necessitating further studies.Keywords: Antimicrobial activity, Herbal toothpaste, Non-herbal toothpaste, Oral isolates