ABSTRACT
Chewing sticks have for long been adopted as alternatives to toothbrushes and toothpaste for proper care of oral health. They provide users with just as much protection against the harmful effects of oral pathogens as toothpaste and toothbrush. They are also readily available and cheap compared to other tools used in the protection of the oral environment against infections. These features have led to the studies on chewing stick and their extracts and their activity against common oral pathogens.
Chewing sticks were collected from market vendors in Benin City, Edo state and taken to the laboratory for phytochemical and antimicrobial analysis. Test isolates were collected from the Medical Microbiology department of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. The extracts were prepared using standardized methods. Standard tests were carried out for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the chewing stick extracts. The antimicrobial activity of the chewing stick extracts was then determined by the disc diffusion method using Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans as the test organisms. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the chewing stick extracts were determined accordingly.
The chewing stick species were identified as Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides, Massularia acuminata and Anogeissus leiocarpus.Qualitative analysis of the chewing extracts revealed that ethanolic extraction revealed the presence of more phytochemicals than aqueous extraction. Aqueous extraction of chewing extracts revealed the presence of phenols and tannins. Saponin were present in the aqueous extracts of both Z. zanthoxyloides and A. leiocarpus but absent in aqueous extract of M. acuminata. Alkaloids were absent in the aqueous extract of all chewing sticks while flavonoids were present in aqueous extracts of A. leiocarpus and M. acuminata but absent in Z. zanthoxyloides. However, saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols and tannins were present in the ethanolic extracts of all chewings sticks. Ethanolic extracts also revealed higher quantities of the available extracts than aqueous extracts of all chewing sticks. Antimicrobial activity against the test organisms revealed that ethanolic extracts of all chewing sticks had a higher spectrum of activity against the test organisms. Aqueous (11.24mm) and ethanolic (14.70mm) extracts of Z. zanthoxyloides showed the highest activity against E. coli at 200mg/ml. No antimicrobial activity was observed for aqueous extracts of A. leiocarpus against E. coli. Antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa was only recorded for ethanolic extract of Z. zanthoxyloides (11.38mm), aqueous (8.00mm) and ethanolic (12.42mm) extract of M. acuminata. Highest activity of chewing stick extract against Staphylococcus aureus was recorded in the activity of ethanolic extract of Z. zanthoxyloides (16.08mm) at 200mg/ml. No activity was recorded for aqueous extract of M. acuminata. Ethanolic extract of M. acuminata showed the highest activity against Klebsiella sp. (12.58mm) while no activity was recorded activity of aqueous extract of A. leiocarpus. Both aqueous and ethanolic extracts of all chewing sticks displayed activity against Candida albicans with the highest activity recorded in ethanolic extract of M. acuminata (14.23mm). Ethanolic extract of chewing sticks had a wider range of MIC (25 – 200mg) than aqueous extracts (50 – 200 mg/ml). MBC of ethanolic extracts ranged from 50 – 200mg/ml while MBC of aqueous extracts ranged from 100 – 200mg/ml. This study has established that chewing stick extracts possess antimicrobial activity against test organisms and the extract might be used in the treatment of infections caused by these organisms.
