A Comparative Study of the Antimicrobial Activity of Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Thymus vulgaris Essential Oils with Chlorhexidine on Salivary Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans

Abstract

The antimicrobial effectiveness of essential oils has been broadly investigated in vitro against various pathogens. However, to our knowledge, there is a lack of reports on evaluating the antimicrobial activities of cinnamon essential oil (CEO) and thyme essential oil (TEO) versus chlorhexidine on oral Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. Here, we evaluated and compared the in vitro antimicrobial capabilities of CEO and TEO on oral S. mutans and C. albicans isolated from pre-school children by agar diffusion method. The statistical analysis for CEO and CHX effects on S. mutans using one-way ANOVA revealed no significant difference between the two groups (p > 0.01). Moreover, the same statistical analysis demonstrated no significant difference between the effect of TEO and CHX (p > 0.01) on C. albicans. The MIC values of CEO against S. mutans and TEO against C. albicans were 12.6 and 470 mg/ml, respectively. The results of our current study support the administration of CEO and TEO in the oral environment for prevention of caries and candidal infections after the proper in vivo studies.

Keywords: Streptococcus mutans; cinnamon oil; thyme oil; antimicrobial.

Cite this Article

Moustafa A. Matar, Walid A. Lotfy, A Comparative Study of the Antimicrobial Activity of Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Thymus vulgaris Essential Oils with Chlorhexidine on Salivary Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Dentistry. 2019; 10(1): 1–7p.