Swetha R, Shobana R, Sunayana M, Prabu D, Raj Mohan and Naveen Raj
Introduction: Mother Nature has gifted with many herbs that have been found to have bactericidal and fungicidal action and these have been used from ages. One among them is Rose which is easily available everywhere like other herbs. Many diseases of human body are bacterial and fungal infections. Especially in oral cavity all the immune compromised patients are affected with fungal and bacterial infections. Use of these synthetic drugs may result in side effects and antibiotic resistance. So, the present study is all about determining the antibacterial and antifungal effect of rose. Hence, determining its application in dentistry, these can be used as an alternate to synthetic drugs to cure diseases. Material and methods: Petals of Rosa indica were used for the preparation of ethanolic extract. 100 g of the powdered sample were soaked in 300 ml of Ethanol in a soxhlet apparatus. The sample obtained from the soxhlet apparatus was then dissolved in (dimethyl sulfoxide) DMSO. This is used to detect Antimicrobial activity of Rosa indica. Both zone of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) were evaluated using Agar well diffusion method and micro-dilution method respectively. The results thus obtained were then compared with the control against Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. Results: Zone of inhibition of rose extract was found to be 18 mm, 16 mm, 10 mm at 1000 μg, 500 μg, 250 μg against Streptococcus mutans, which was less than the control kanamycin (24 mm) and zone of inhibition was 26 mm, 24 mm, 22 mm at 1000 μg, 500 μg, 250 μg against Candida albicans which was greater than the control ketaconozole (19 mm). Thus, the rose extract has both antibacterial and antifungal property. Antifungal effect is more than antibacterial effect of rose. Discussion: Zone of inhibition of rose extract is more when compared to ketaconozole, an antifungal drug and less than kanamycin, an antifungal drug. Rose extract has both antibacterial and antifungal property. Antifungal effect of rose is more than antibacterial effect and it is very effective against fungal diseases. Conclusion: We can state that roses have both antibacterial and antifungal activity. In the present study rose extract has more antifungal property than antibacterial property. With this finding, rose can be used as a potent antifungal drug to treat fungal infections.