Terminalia chebula Mediated Silver Nanoparticles and Its Antibacterial Activity against Oral Pathogens

Background: Dental infections cause chronic disorders such as gingivitis, periodontitis, and dental caries when left untreated, resulting in irreversible tooth loss. However, solid preventive methods, such as employing promising herbs with well-documented health advantages like Terminalia chebula, can help to reduce the excessive expansion of dangerous oral flora like Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis.

Aim: The goal of this study is to see how effective silver nanoparticles made from Terminalia chebula are against oral pathogens including Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis at various doses.

Materials and Methodology: The plant extract was made from Terminalia chebula, followed by the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The antibacterial efficacy of Ag-NPs in varied concentrations, namely 25, 50, and 100 L, was determined using the agar-well diffusion method, with amoxicillin acting as a positive control. For each plate, the zone of inhibition was recorded, and the findings were statistically analysed using one way anova and post hoc analysis using IBM SPSS software (Version 20.0)

Results: Following the synthesis of Ag-NPs, a colour shift was noticed. UV-vis spectroscopy was used to characterise the synthesized particles, which revealed a peak at 440nm. With a rise in Ag-NP concentration, the antibacterial activity indicated an increase in zone of inhibition. The zone of inhibition for S. aureus was substantially higher than Amoxicillin at all doses of Ag-NPs (p< 0.05), whereas it was significantly lower for E. faecalis (p<0.05). The zone of inhibition for S. mutans was substantially lower than amoxicillin at 25µL concentration (p< 0.05), but there was no significant difference at higher concentrations (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Antibacterial activity of Ag-NPs derived from Terminalia chebula against dental pathogens, particularly Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis.