Evaluation and Comparison of Anti-bacterial Efficacy of Commercially Available Various Ayurvedic Mouth Ulcer Gels: An In-vitro Study

Aim: To evaluate and compare the anti-bacterial efficacy of commercially available various ayurvedic mouth ulcer gel against Streptococcus mutans.

Study Design: In-vitro study.

Background: Mouth ulcer, also known as aphthous ulcer, is a type of oral ulcer that can have a variety of symptoms like pain, redness, swelling and discomfort which occur due to numerous etiological factors. Mouth ulcer gels alleviate the symptoms associated with mouth ulcers. Oral ulcer gels also have antibacterial properties that aid to prevent ulcer infection. A number of mouth ulcer gels are available on the market to treat mouth ulcers. The goal of this study was to assess and compare the antibacterial activity of ayurvedic mouth ulcer gels against oral bacteria.

Materials and Methods: The commercially available mouth ulcer gel formulations used are SMYLE GEL, MUCOPAIN GEL, HIMALAYA HIORA-SG GEL, COLO MOUTH ULCER GEL and CURE NEXT GEL. Streptococcus mutans were used for the study. Direct agar well diffusion was performed by transferring a loop full of cells from the stock cultures to test tube of nutrient broth for bacteria incubated at 37C for 24 hours and adding 0.1 ml of the gels to each well and dilute with water in ratio 1:1, 1:5, 1:10.

Results: Commercially available various ayurvedic mouth ulcer gels were tested against Streptococcus mutans in which HIMALAYA HIORA-SG GEL showed substantial inhibitory activity in various concentration which was determined by direct agar diffusion method.

Conclusion: In the present study, it was observed that HIMALAYA HIORA-SG GEL was more effective when compared to other mouth ulcer gels.