Effect of Morinda citrifolia L. fruit juice on gingivitis/periodontitis

Jonas Glang, Wolfgang Falk, Johannes Westendorf

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Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Clinic, Hamburg.

DOI: 10.4236/mri.2013.22003                

Abstract

The majority of the world’s population suffers from gingivitis/periodontitis. This inflammatory process is caused by several bacterial species inside the dental plaque. In vivo and in vitro experiments were set up. The patients of the in vivo group were divided into a noni and a control group. Both groups contained patients that suffered from gingivitis/periodontitis who were introduced to practice standardized, good oral hygiene. The patients in the noni group additionally used noni juice for mouth wash two times a day. The Papillae-Bleeding-Index (PBI) was evaluated comparing the status of inflammation in both groups. Bacterial probes were isolated from the patient’s gingival pouches for species identification and to carry out in vitro experiments for possible antimicrobial effects of noni juice. The Papillae-Bleeding-Index (PBI) in the noni group has “highly significantly” improved from an average of 2.25 at the beginning of the observation period (t₀) to 1.01 after four weeks of noni treatment (t₁), compared to a change from 2.11 at t₀ to 1.95 at t₁ inthe control group. A comparison of the differences of the PBI-values (t₀-t₁) between the noni and the control group was highly significant using a t-test on a level of p = 0.01. Only small inhibition zones were observed in the agar diffusion test on agar plates coated with aerobic, anaerobic and Candida cultures isolated from the patients gingival pouches after treatment with original or neutralized noni juice in different concentrations. Weak bacteriostatic effects occurred in the agar dilution experiments with noni juice in higher concentrations (native and neutralized noni juice). The present investigation has shown that the combination of good oral hygiene and the administration of noni juice was a promising treatment for gingivitis and periodontitis. The additional treatment with noni juice significantly mitigated the gingival inflammation.

Keywords

Gingivitis; Periodontitis; Morinda citrifolia L.; Noni; Bacterial Inflammation; Interleukin-1

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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