| Summary: | Background. Dental caries is a major problem of dental health in Indonesia.
Streptococcus mutans is a kind of bacteria that leads to caries. In this recent time the
substances used to eliminate the caries cannot solve the problem because S. mutans is
resistant to those materials. Moreover, the substance results on side effect that can be
occurred after 10 years of consumption. This meantime, red betel leaves is a
promising material to solve the problem of lack of substance for treating dental
caries. The red betel leaves contain active compounds such as essential oil, flavonoid,
alkaloid, and phenolic compounds. The active compounds are foreseeable on
impeding of caries development.
Goals. This research is aimed to analyze the inhibition of the active compounds in the
red betel leaves against S. mutans and the activity of glucosyltransferase.
Materials and Methods. Pure cultures of S. mutans have been treated by essential
oil, alkaloid, flavonoid, phenolic compounds and povidone iodine as positive control
as well as distilled water as negative control. The growth inhibition test of S. mutans
was carried out with liquid dilution test and diffusion test. The growth inhibition test
of glucosyltransferase was done by measuring the levels formed fructose and then is
analyzed by Somogyi-nelson method. The data was analyzed using one-way anova
with the confidence level of 95%.
Result and Discussion. Essential oil and alkaloid have the smallest MIC compared
with the other active compounds (5,000 µg/mL) but it is larger than povione iodine as
positive control. The essential oil has inhibition zone diameter that has insignificant
compared with povidone iodine in the high or low concentration. The essential oil
gives the insignificant inhibition to the activity of glucosyltransferase compared with
povidone iodine.
Conclusion. The essential oil of red betel leaves as active compounds has the
strongest inhibition level for the growth of S. mutans and activity of
glucosyltransferase.
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