Effects of Anacardium Occidentale Mouthwash on Plaque Deposition and Gingivitis

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of mouthwash containing Anarcardium Occidentale leaf extract on plaque deposition and gingivitis.

Methods: Eighty healthy subjects, aged 18-30 years-old, with at least 20 teeth and abstained from drug use with gingival index and plaque index in the range of 0-2 and 1.5-4, respectively, were participated in this study.  All subjects had professional supragingival scaling prior to the beginning of the study.  The volunteers were randomly classified into 5 groups to use the following formula of mouthwashes; Group 1: Listerine^®, Groups 2, 3, and 4: 5, 10 and 20% of Anarcardium Occidentale  leaf extract mouthwash respectively, and Group 5: mouthwash without Anarcardium Occidentale  leaf extract.  The subjects were instructed to rinse the assigned mouthwash twice a day in the morning and before bed time daily, for 4 weeks.  At 14 and 28 d, GI and PI status were evaluated. 

Results: All groups showed significant reduction of mean GI and PI index (Wilcoxon signed-ranks test; p < 0.05) after 28-d use of the mouthwash (Table).  Furthermore, there was significant difference of GI and PI index between groups at least 1 group (Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.05). There were significant difference between group 1 compare with group 2, 4 and 5 (Dunn's test; p<0.05)