Fig. 4
Effect of curcumin on EPS of the biofilms of S. mutans clinical strains. a and b show three-dimensional image reconstruction of the biofilm formed by SECC and CF group after the treatment of drug for 5 min (a) and 24 h (b), respectively. The image was scanned at 20x magnification. c is represented the volume of EPS after treated by curcumin for the 5-min in SECC group and the CF group. Five random fields were selected for each sample, and data was obtained from three replicates in each group. d shows the change in EPS in the biofilm of S. mutant clinical strain after 24 h of curcumin treatment. Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. * indicates statistically significant differences between the data (* P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001)