dc.description.abstract | One of the important virulence properties of Streptococcus mutans is their ability to form
biofilms known as dental plaque on tooth surfaces and is a primary an etiological agent in dental
caries. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of Callistemon
strinus extract on Streptococcus mutans using agar well diffusion method. Amoxyllin was used
as a standard, while distilled water, 50% ethanol and 50% petroleum were used as negative
controls. The results of this study indicate that the antibacterial activity of the Citrinus extracts
on the agar plates varied in different solvents. The petroleum ether extract exhibited a significant
antimicrobial activity of 40.6mm against Streptococcus mutans, compared to the ethanolic
sextract that exhibited a moderate antimicrobial activity of 22.3mm.The plant Callistemon
Citrinus is enriched with significant antimicrobials due to the presence of active constituents like
phenolic compounds, tannins and thereby justifying their use in the indigenous system of
medicine. Such medicinal plants can be of a great importance in modification of available
antibiotics to combart antibiotic resistance. Therefore, more research mainly based on chemistry
to identify, isolate and purify the phytochemicals in petroleum ether, ethanolic and water leaf
extracts of Callistemon Citrinus such that the tests are carried out on pure compounds to identify
the exact compounds responsible for different activities. | en_US |