Effect of Powerdental on caries-inducing properties of Streptococcus mutans and TNF-alpha secretion from HMC-1 cells.

We studied the inhibitory effect of Powerdental on the growth and acid production of Streptococcus mutans as well as secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). The growth of Streptococcus mutans was reduced by the presence of the Powerdental (1 mg/ml) and NaCl (1 mg/ml) significantly, and the positive control group (1% NaF) also exhibited a significant antibacterial activity. The decrease of pH was significantly inhibited in the presence of Powerdental (1 mg/ml) compared to the control group. The decrease in pH was also inhibited in the presence of positive control (1% NaF), but the bamboo salt alone did not show inhibitory activity. We also found that Powerdental (0.01 mg/ml) inhibited significantly the secretion of TNF-alpha with 46.5+/-0.2% from human mast cells. Our results suggest that Powerdental contributes to the prevention or treatment of periodontitis and other oral diseases or inflammatory diseases.