Dear Fawzan,

Please read the following text:

Curcumin is effective in treating periodontal diseases.[45] Most studies evaluating the efficacy of PDT on oral bacteria have used toluidine blue O (TBO) and methylene blue as PS, followed by irradiation with a red light emitting diode light. Neither TBO dye nor light alone has any significant antibacterial effect indicating the need for dye-light conjugation to ensure the effectiveness of PDT. In this study, the halogen curing light (470 nm) with an intensity of 620 mW/cm2 was used together with curcumin gel with a concentration of 10 mg/g. The dyes work as optical absorption agent which is activated by irradiation with light of a specific wavelength, resulting in the generation of cytotoxic species, including singlet oxygen and free radicals, which exert a bactericidal effect but that are not toxic to host cells. The study suggests that curcumin as local drug adjunct to SRP is effective in reducing gingival bleeding and periodontal pathogens like Aa and BPB, which is further supports previous studies reporting comparable anti-inflammatory effect of curcumin and/or chlorhexidine mouthwash. Curcumin suppresses the growth of Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Lactobacillus, Helicobacter pylori, etc.. Similarly, the antibacterial effect of curcumin was also equally effective in reducing Pg as tested by N-benzoyl-d L-arginine-2-naphthylamide test. Hence, to evaluate its effect on periodontal pathogenic Gram-negative species as well as its effect on other clinical parameters, this study was carried out.

This text was taken from a recent publication entitled "Comparative evaluation of the efficacy of curcumin gel with and without photo activation as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in the treatment of chronic periodontitis: A split mouth clinical and microbiological study "  by Annaji Sreedhar et al. published in J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2015 Aug; 6(Suppl 1): S102–S109.

For more details on this topic, please use the following link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4630739/

Hoping this will be helpful,

Rafik

Dear Prof Karaman,

Thank you for your information. Do you have any other information, other than curcumin, is there any other source of natural photosensitizer? FYI i want to apply this photosensitizer into food, so if I put curcumin i am affraid it will effects to the flavor and taste..

Dear Fawzan,

The review article entitled " Drug Discovery of Antimicrobial Photosensitizers Using Animal Models" contained in the following link lists some photosensitizers from natural origin with the potential of being antimacrobial agents:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3463379/

Hoping this will be helpful,

Rafik

Dear Fawzan,

Please read the presentation

Chlorophyllin-based photosensitization for microbial control of fresh produce (Conference Presentation): https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/11070/110700M/Chlorophyllin-based-photosensitization-for-microbial-control-of-fresh-produce-Conference/10.1117/12.2525570.full

also "Effective photosensitization-based inactivation of Gram (-) food pathogens and molds using the chlorophyllin-chitosan complex: Towards photoactive edible coatings to preserve strawberries" and " What an Escherichia coli Mutant Can Teach Us About the Antibacterial Effect of Chlorophyllin "