Optimization and evaluation of antibacterial extracts from Acacia nilotica, Psidium guajava, Syzygium aromaticum, and Salvadora persica to inhibit dental caries.

OBJECTIVE

Dental caries is a significant global issue, which affects approximately 44 % of the global population. The objective of this research is to extract crude phytochemicals from Psidium guajava, Acacia nilotica, Syzygium aromaticum, and Salvadora persica and also optimizing using RSM. Therefore, this aims to maximize the antibacterial potential of the extracts at effective inhibition of dental caries METHOD: The crude extracts from the plants samples, with varying extraction parameters, such as ethanol concentrations, temperatures, and solid-solvent ratios was done using Soxhlet method and antibacterial activity was determined through well and disc diffusion methods along with optimization was performed by Response Surface Methodology (RSM).

RESULTS

The results depict that Psidium guajava exhibited the strongest antibacterial activity against S. mutans and Lactobacillus, with inhibition zones of 36 mm & 20 mm and 32 mm & 24 mm for both well and disc diffusion. Similarly, Syzygium aromaticum also shows slight stronger inhibition zones, Acacia nilotica exhibited moderate activity and in contrast, Salvadora persica showed limited activity. RSM optimization was validated and with well fitted quadratic models R² values ranging from 0.69 to 0.79. Predicted and experimental values are in close agreement between with differences below 0.5 %.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that P. guajava, S. aromaticum and A. nilotica have strong potential as natural antibacterial agents in oral care formulations.