ABSTRACT:
In the present investigation, a soil fungus was isolated by using serial dilution agar plate technique and screened for its antagonistic activity against the three Streptococcus mutans strains following the overlay culture plate technique and agar well diffusion method. The antagonistic activity of fungal metabolite was compared with commercially available drug gentamycin, which was used as positive control. Identified fungus, Aspergillus terreus showed antagonistic activity in both overlay agar culture plate technique and agar well diffusion method. A. terreus was found to be effective against all the three strains of S. mutans with zone of growth inhibition ranging between 30 and 37mm. The antibacterial activity of fungal metabolite was higher than that of gentamycin and it may be suggested that further research is needed for determining the chemical structure of metabolite which is responsible for bioefficacy and to determine the cytotoxicity and in vivo efficacy against dental caries pathogens before it is used for commercialization purposes.