Nutmeg contains a compound with potent anti-biofilm activity against oral bacteria. - GreenMedInfo Summary

In early dental plaque formation, oral primary colonizers such as Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguis and Actinomyces viscosus are initially attached to the pellicle-coated tooth surface to form a biofilm. The study aimed to determine the efficacy of macelignan, isolated from nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.), in removing each single oral primary biofilm in vitro on a polystyrene 96-well microtiter plate. Four biofilm growth phases (4, 12, 20 and 24 h) were evaluated in this study after treatment with macelignan at various concentrations (0.2, 2 and 10 microg/mL) and exposure times (5, 10 and 30 min). Anti-biofilm activity of macelignan was measured as the percentage of the remaining biofilm absorbance after macelignan treatment in comparison with the untreated control. At 24 h of biofilm growth, S. mutans, A. viscosus and S. sanguis biofilms were reduced by up to 30%, 30% and 38%, respectively, after treatment with 10 microg/mL macelignan for 5 min. Increasing the treatment time to 30 min resulted in a reduction of more than 50% of each of the single primary biofilms. The results indicate that macelignan is a potent natural anti-biofilm agent against oral primary colonizers.