A Study of the Anticaries Activity of Three Common Chewing Sticks and Two Brands of Toothpaste in South West Nigeria

Aim: To evaluate three common chewing sticks and two brands of toothpaste in south west Nigeria for the ability to control caries-causing bacteria.

With an increase in tooth decay and gum diseases all over the world, there is need to produce oral cleaning agents that will better control caries-causing bacteria.

Study Design: Three common chewing sticks in South-West Nigeria- Fagara zanthoxyloides (FZ), Vernonia amygdalina (VA) and Massularia accuminata (MA)- and two brands of toothpaste- Close Up and Macleans- were evaluated for their anti-caries activities.

Fifty isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, one of the bacteria often implicated in dental caries, isolated from patients presenting with various dental problems at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria were obtained from the Medical Microbiology Department of the Hospital.

Methodology: The isolates were challenged with the toothpastes, undiluted, as well as ethanol and aqueous extracts of the chewing sticks using the agar cup diffusion method. The chewing sticks were also screened for secondary metabolites using standard procedures.

Results: The ethanol extracts of Fagara zanthoxyloides (FZ) showed the highest anti-caries activity followed by Vernonia amygdalina (VA) and then Massularia acuminata (MA). 43 isolates (86%) were sensitive to the ethanol extract of Fagara zanthoxyloides while 36 (72%) and 25 (50%) were sensitive to Vernonia amygdalina and Massularia acuminata respectively.

Both brands of toothpaste were inferior to the ethanol extracts of all the chewing sticks in anti-caries activity. Only 15 (30%) and 20 (40%) of the isolates were sensitive to Close up and Macleans respectively.

16 (32%), 14 (28%) and 10 (20%) of the isolates were sensitive to the aqueous extracts of FZ, MA and VA respectively.

Conclusion: The active constituents in the ethanol extracts of the chewing sticks will be useful as anti caries components of herbal toothpastes which are becoming common in the market.