A bird’s eye view of plants used as toothbrush in India: past and present

Abstract

Plants have been used for centuries to improve dental health and to promote oral hygiene and this practice persists in several communities throughout the world since the times of ancient civilizations. India has been rich in cultural diversity since antiquity and plants play a significant role in religion and faith. In India, plants have been used as natural tooth brush since time immemorial. In ancient literature such as Indian and in different texts of Ayurveda many of them were described with their medicinal properties and uses for overall oral dental care. Besides, over 72% population of the country residing in rural areas utilize a wide variety of plant species as tooth brush. An attempt has been made to document all the information available in ancient and present literature and collected during ethnobotanical survey in different tribal and rural areas of the country