Journal of Oral Medicine, Oral Surgery, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology 2021;7(1):50–56 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals Journal of Oral Medicine, Oral Surgery, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology Journal homepage: www.joooo.org Original Research Article Quantitative analysis of anti-bacterial properties of Tulsi (ocimum sanctum) and Neem (azadirachta indica) plant extracts- in vitro study Shatakshi Sharma 1, *, Shailja Chatterjee 2 , Varsha A Singh 3 , Vidushi Mahajan 4 1 Dept. of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, Town Dental Advanced Multispecialty Dental Clinic & Oral Cancer Diagnosis Centre, Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir, India 2 Dept. of Oral Pathology, Yamuna Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana, India 3 Dept. of Microbiology, M.M Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Mullana, Haryana, India 4 IIIM, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 28-10-2020 Accepted 07-12-2020 Available online 18-02-2021 Keywords: Phytotherapy Phytoextract Ocimum sanctum Minimum inhibitory concentration Millimeter Azadirachta indica Plant extracts Zone of inhibition ABSTRACT Oral cavity cohabitates over 750 bacterial species of which only 50% relate to the pathogenesis of oral diseases such as dental caries.1 Due to the insufficient treatment protocols, new avenues in field of pharmacology are required. As an alternative method of treatment, use of medicinal plants in dentistry has recently drawn attention of many dental researchers. The objective of this study was to quantitatively analyze the anti-bacterial properties of Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum ) and Neem (Azadirachta indica) plants extracts on Streptococcus mutans under in vitro conditions. A total of thirty culture plates per plant including 10 plates per extract served as sample size for the study. The leaves, stems and roots of both the plants were shade dried and powdered and extracted by process of successive extraction. Overnight growth of the test organism in Brain Heart infusion was taken and sub-cultured in Blood Agar. The colonies were transferred to Blood Mueller Hilton (BMH) agar and growth pattern was observed the following morning. Three wells of 6mm diameter each were filled with ten micro-litre of the working suspension of different crude extracts of both Neem and Tulsi with the help of micropipettes. Plates were incubated at 37 ◦ C for 48 hours and zone of inhibitions (ZOI) were measured. The study illustrated the mean values for the zones of inhibition (mm) for Neem to be 25.50mm, 26.60mm and 25.20 mm, respectively and that for Tulsi to be 22.80 mm, 20.40 mm and 21.20 mm, respectively which were significantly greater than that of Cephotaxime (23.00mm). © This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 1. Introduction Oral diseases are among the major health issues wherein dental caries and periodontal diseases are the most commonly occurring problems. 1 Oral cavity is cohabitated by over 750 bacterial species of which only 50% related to the pathogenesis of oral diseases such as dental caries. 1 There has been a rise in the oral disease incidence since 1998, particularly in the developing nations like India due to dietary habits, low awareness among the population regarding the oral health, increased antibiotic resistance * Corresponding author. E-mail address: drshatakshisharma.op@gmail.com (S. Sharma). exhibited by the pathogenic bacteria, opportunistic oral infections in subjects with compromised immunity and low per capita income. 1 Normal commensals of the oral cavity such as Mutans streptococcus (MS) species actively participate in the initiation and progression of dental caries. 2 The bacterial population in oral cavity undergoes constant changes because of changes in local environment (pH, for example) of the oral cavity, salivary effects and changes in colony population mainly due to weak or suppressed immunity. 3 Oral disease manifests when the pathogenic bacterial colonization overrides the host immune response and starts https://doi.org/10.18231/j.jooo.2021.009 2395-6186/© 2021 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 50