eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2016-06-25 13 2 1279 1284 10.13005/bbra/2163 14303 article Wael A. Elnaggar 1 Tarek Hosny Taha 2 Nehal M El-Deeb 3 Hussam H. Arafat 4,5 Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Northern Border University, Rafha, KSA. Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI), City of Scientific Research and Technology Applications (SRTA- CITY), New Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt. Department of Biopharmaceutical Product Research, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI), City of Scientific Research and Technology Applications (SRTA- CITY), New Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Arts, Northern Border University, Rafha, KSA. Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Minia University, Minia City- 61519, Egypt. Oral diseases are major health problems with dental caries and periodontal diseases among the most important preventable global infectious diseases. Increasing of refractory periodontal diseases is due to non-sensitivity of cariogenic bacteria to antibiotics, and the lack of new alternatives will be threat to danger imminent. This serious increase in the non-sensitivity of microbes to antibiotics may be opened to search for alternative approaches for exploring of new drugs with specific therapeutic activities. In this study cariogenic bacterium Streptococcus mutans strain ATCC 25175 was used as a test organism for evaluation the efficacy of water extracts of eight different medicinal plants as antibacterial and anti-biofilm agents. The best percentage of inhibition of these extracts against S. mutans strain ATCC 25175 was recorded as; Pomegranate peel˃ Clove˃ Coffeee˃ green tea. The cytotoxicity of the most potent extracts has been measured against fibroblast cells. Generally, the green tea extract was the safer extract followed by coffee, pomegranate peel and clove extracts. The recorded IC₅₀ of the all used plant extracts on fibroblast cells ranged from 10-1.25%. with exception for green tea extract that didn't show IC₅₀ even with the maximum used concentration. The potency of the three selected extracts to to inhibt the biofilm formation by the tested strain could be summarized by the following order: pomegranate peel˃ coffee˃ clove. Oral health influences the general quality of life and poor oral health is linked to chronic conditions and systemic diseases. Finally, give a recommendation for using some of these extracts to restrict the bacterial growth and reduction of the prevalence of periodontitis and cariogenic diseases. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol13no2/efficacy-of-non-cytotoxic-doses-of-some-medicinal-plant-extracts-as-antibacterial-and-anti-biofilm-agents-against-cariogenic-bacterium-streptococcus-mutans/ Oral diseases;Medicinal plants;Cytotoxicity;Antibacterial;anti-biofilm agents