Herbal Gargle for Dry Mouth and Care: In vitro and Ex vivo Evaluations

The current study aimed to design an ex vivo experimental method, in combination with in vitro analysis, to measure and evaluate sheep tongue dryness and wetness, which was used to assess the ex vivo efficacy of herbal gargle formulas for dry mouth/xerostomia. The test method was applied to the herbal gargle that was successfully designed in the first part of our study, which demonstrated good physicochemical characteristics, stability, antimicrobial efficacy, and safety as proven by in vitro gingival fibroblast cell studies.

In vitro analysis and an ex vivo sheep tongue method, based on both gravimetric and texture analysis, were applied to the herbal gargle formula. For gravimetric analysis, the sheep tongues were weighed before and after being placed in an oral cavity mimic chamber. The adhesiveness of the sheep tongues was then measured using texture analysis.

In vitro evaluations and the ex vivo sheep tongue model showed that the herbal gargle formulation decreased tongue adhesivity while exhibiting the highest liquid retention capacity. The formula, which included 2% cinnamon leaf oil, 4% hazelnut oil, and a 0.5% CMC solution as the active ingredients, demonstrated strong ex vivo wetting ability with high liquid retention.

The results of both the in vitro evaluations and the ex vivo sheep tongue model confirmed that the herbal gargle formulation reduced tongue adhesivity and provided high liquid retention capacity. The formulation containing 2% cinnamon leaf oil, 4% hazelnut oil, and 0.5% CMC showed strong ex vivo wetting performance.

In conclusion the herbal gargle formula, which demonstrated good physicochemical characteristics, stability, antimicrobial activity against oral pathogens, and safety for oral epithelial cells, strengthened its overall performance through successful ex vivo sheep tongue results, showing high liquid retention and low adhesiveness. These findings support the wettability potential of the investigated formula.