Peck, Mogammad T.Africa, Charlene W.J.Stephen, Lawrence X.G.S.Marnewick, JohanMajeed, Abdul2014-01-092014-01-092011Peck, M.T., et al. (2011). An in-vitro analysis of the antimicrobial efficacy of herbal toothpastes on selected primary plaque colonizers. International Journal of Clinical Dental Science, 2(3): 28-322229-7790http://hdl.handle.net/10566/928Plaque associated oral disease affects a considerable portion of the population and is considered one of the major causes of tooth loss. In most cases toothbrushing only removes a limited amount of dental plaque and other chemical agents are required to reduce the bacterial load. Aims & objectives: The purpose of study was to determine whether there was any significant difference in the antimicrobial activity of 4 herbal toothpastes against cultures of 3 primary plaque colonizers. Methods: A total of 5 toothpastes were tested for their antimicrobial efficacy against Streptococcus mutans (NCTC 10920), Streptococcus sanguinis (NCTC 10904) and a non-specific α-heamolytic streptococcus by agar diffusion method. The data were collected and analysed using one way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison test significant at p<0.05. Results: Dentazyme® herbal toothpaste showed the greatest ability to inhibit bacterial growth for all the tested organisms (p<0.05). Nature Fresh had the lowest potential for antimicrobial activity. Conclusions: Dentazyme® Herbal toothpaste was the only herbal toothpaste to inhibit the growth of all the bacteria tested and had similar antimicrobial efficacy to a triclosan containing toothpaste (Colgate® Total®).en© 2011 Peck, et al; licensee iMD Publishers. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.PlaqueHerbal toothpasteAntimicrobial activityBacteriaArticle