Comparative Evaluation of a Commercial Herbal Extract and 0.2% Chlorhexidine Mouthwash on Three Periodontal Facultative Anaerobes: An In Vitro Study

BACKGROUND: The application of herbal and/or chemical antimicrobial mouthwashes in addition to the mechanical methods of bacteria removal helps reduce the periopathogens and thus increase the periodontal tissues' health. The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial effect of Thymex (TMX) syrup on three periodontal facultative anaerobes in vitro and compare it with 0.2% chlorhexidine (CHX) mouthwash. METHODS: In this in vitro experiment, the disc diffusion method was used to measure the inhibitory halo diameter (IhD) of Enterobacter cloacae, Actinomyces viscosus, and Eikenella corrodens. The paper discs containing TMX and CHX were placed on Mueller–Hinton agar media and cultured with the mentioned bacteria. Moreover, a blank disc containing distilled water was used as a control. From each of the three bacterial species, five samples were taken, and after 18 hours of storage in the incubator, the IhDs were measured in millimeters. A one-way ANOVA test and an independent sample t-test were used to compare the mean differences of IhDs between groups. The significance level was considered to be 0.05. RESULTS: The IhDs ranged between 6.2–8.8 mm and 12.3–34 mm for TMX and CHX, respectively. CHX showed a more inhibitory effect on all three species of bacteria compared to TMX mouthwash (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite the inhibitory effect of TMX on bacterial growth, CHX showed significantly more antibacterial activity than TMX against three studied bacterial species.