Folkloric medicines derived from plants is a very old tradition and part of our cultures. People turn to plants for cure of various ailments and relief. Thus, to prove the validity of such long usage, this preliminary study was conducted. Batangas [Philippines] is endowed with a number of medicinal plants that are to have anti-toothache activity. The potential of these plants for the relief of toothache is special because the occurrence of toothache due to dental cares or tooth decay is prevalent, and is of increasing rate among the young children, particularly in Batangas. To alleviate this public health hazard, medicinal plants were screened as a safe and economic means of solving the problem. The efficacy of crude ethanolic and aqueous extracts of guava, yerba-buena, avocado, bawang and calachuchi in inhibiting the growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus, one of three organisms was obtained from culture collection of BIOTECH, UPLB [Philippines Univ. Los Banos, College, Laguna (Philippines). National Inst. of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology] . Antibacterial activity was determined by paper disc-agar plate method of assay. Results indicated that five out of 13 priority plants tested exhibited inhibitory activity in the following order: ethanolic extracts of guava leaves; volatile oil of guava leaves; ethanolic extract of calachuchi pink flowers; fresh leaf extract of walis-walisan; garlic oil; hydro-distilled garlic oil; and ethanolic extract of pandacaqui bark