Research Trends and Thematic Evolution of Salvadora persica (Miswak) in Oral Health: A Bibliometric Analysis.

AIM: This study aimed to map the publication landscape, intellectual structure and thematic organisation of Salvadora persica (miswak) research in oral health using bibliometric analysis.

METHODS

The Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection was used to retrieve publications. Search terms were pre-determined on S. persica and oral health. The performance assessment was based on publication trends, high-productivity authors and countries, and the most-cited articles. Co-citation, bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence analysis were carried out using VOSviewer to visualise intellectual structures and research themes.

FINDINGS: A total of 295 journal articles were included in the final dataset, with 3035 citations in total and 2795 excluding self-citations. The number of research outputs has grown significantly since 2014. The major geographical contributors were Saudi Arabia, India and Egypt. Co-citation analysis showed that the intellectual structure of the field is anchored in references related to preventive dentistry, oral hygiene practices, periodontal health, phytochemistry and antimicrobial research. Four significant thematic groups were identified through bibliographic coupling and keyword searches: antimicrobial and antioxidant mechanisms; behavioural and preventive oral health practices; extract-based and clinical applications in dental caries management; and plaque control and gingival health outcomes. The clusters indicate that the literature is organised around traditional oral hygiene use, antimicrobial and phytochemical mechanisms, clinical oral health outcomes and natural product applications.

CONCLUSION

The evidence base for Salvadora persica has evolved into a structured, multidisciplinary field. The literature increasingly frames miswak as a potential adjunct to conventional oral hygiene; however, bibliometric findings alone cannot establish clinical effectiveness.