ABSTRACT
The changing food habits and lifestyle has resulted in deterioration of oral health in the people of all ages. The increasing global problems with the traditional disease management strategies have prompted the investigators to hunt for the new and better alternatives to deal with health issues. The global demand for chemical free, less harmful and easier solutions to health problems has increased in past few years. Probiotics or the foods with ‘live cultures’ have come up as one of the most promising alternate to traditional disease management. Probiotics are those viable microorganisms which are constituents of natural microflora of human body. Probiotic therapy decreases the risk of colonization by oral pathogens without depleting the friendly microflora. Probiotics resembles the human body microbiota and are readily incorporated in the natural microflora of human body. They are harmless and easy to consume in many edible forms (such as cheese, yoghurt, etc.). The inability of the antibiotics to discriminate good bacteria from the disease causing bacteria, the development of antimicrobial resistant mutants and the increasing rate of antibiotic associated side effects and complications suggests an urgent need to switch our therapeutic approach from traditional antibiotics to the probiotic therapy for oral care. The use of probiotics in routine life is likely to improve the oral health. This review demonstrates the action of Probiotics on oral health and disease.
ABSTRACT
In the present study, a total of six extracts of two spices namely black pepper and turmeric in three solvents were evaluated for their antibacterial and antifungal activity. The antibacterial activity was measured by agar well diffusion method and antifungal activity by poisoned food technique. All the extracts showed antibacterial activity against all the test bacterial isolates. Aqueous extracts of black pepper did not exhibit antibacterial activity against B. subtilis. In aqueous extract, black pepper and turmeric showed good inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus with zone of inhibition 25mm to 30mm and 26mm to 28mm respectively. In ethanolic extract, black pepper extract showed antibacterial activity against all test bacteria with zone of inhibition ranged between 15mm and 22mm while turmeric showed activity with zone of inhibition ranged between 13mm and 24mm. In methanolic extract, the diameter of zone of inhibition ranged between 12mm and 28mm in black pepper and 13mm and 22mm in turmeric. In case of antifungal activity, only turmeric ethanolic extract showed activity only against Rhizopus stolonifer and Mucor sp. with percent mycelial growth inhibition ranged between 25% and 30%. Based on this finding, these extracts may be an alternative to chemical preservatives and used as natural antimicrobial preservatives to reclaim the shelf-life of food.