Anti-Bacterial Activity Testing Of lemongrass stalks (Cymbogopon Citratus) Against Streptococcus Mutans Bacteria

Abstract

Background: Dental and oral health is part of body health that cannot be separated from
each other because dental and oral health can affect the overall health of the body. The risk
posed by poor dental and oral hygiene conditions can increase the occurrence of caries.
Streptococcus mutans bacteria are the most commonly found bacteria, so it is said that these
bacteria have an important role in the occurrence of dental caries. One of the efforts to reduce
the caries rate in the community requires an antibacterial that can kill Streptococcus mutans
bacteria. One of the natural antibacterials that can be used as medicine is lemongrass
(Cymbogopon Citratus).
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the antibacterial activity test of Stew
of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon Citratus) Against Streptococcus Mutans Bacteria.
Method: This research is an experimental laboratory research conducted from July to August
2022 at the Microbiology Research Center Laboratory of the Faculty of Dentistry, Airlangga
University, Surabaya. The method in this study is to observe and measure the diameter of the
inhibition zone of Streptococcus Mutans bacteria using the paper disc diffusion method.
Analysis of the data used is the One Way Anova test by analyzing boiled water of kitchen
lemongrass stems with concentrations of 5%, 10% and 15% against Streptococcus mutans
bacteria.
Result: based on the results of statistical tests using the One-way Anova test, p-value = 0.000
was obtained so that p-value <0.05, which means that the concentration of cooking water
from the tested lemongrass stems has an effect on the growth of Streptococcus mutans (pvalue <0.05) indicating that the cooking water of lemongrass stems at concentrations of 5%,
10% and 15% were effective in inhibiting Streptococcus mutans bacteria.
Conclusion: Based on the results of the research that has been done, it can be concluded that
there is a test of antibacterial activity of lemongrass (Cymbogopon Citratus) boiled water at
concentrations of 5%, 10% and 15%.