Anti-inflammatory activity of punica granatum extract on oral microbes-in vitro

To study the anti-inflammatory effect of Punica granatum extract against the oral microbes. Oral diseases continue to be a major health problem worldwide. Dental caries and periodontal diseases are among the most important global oral health problems, although conditions such as oral and pharyngeal cancers and oral tissue lesions are also significant health concerns. Pomegranate extracts have been used for centuries in traditional medicine to confer health benefits in a number of inflammatory diseases, microbial infections and cancer. The anti-inflammatory activity of pomegranate extract was evaluated by protein denaturation assay, and the results were read spectropho-tometrically. Denaturation of proteins is a great-documented cause of inflammation. As a part of the investigation on the mechanism of the anti-inflammatory activity, the ability to extract to inhibit protein denaturation was studied. It was effective in inhibiting heat induced albumin denaturation at different concentrations as shown in Table 1. Maximum inhibition, 70.12±1.12% was observed at 500µg/ml. IC50 value was found to be 105.35±1.99µg/ml. Aspirin, a standard anti-inflammatory drug showed the maximum inhibition, 77.12±1.42% at the concentration of 200µg/ml. Hence it can be concluded that pomegranate extract has anti-inflammatory property and also can be used in products such as toothpaste and mouth wash etc.