Can Chinese Pickles Prevent Cavities?

Chinese and Israeli researchers say probiotic made from a strain of bacteria found in Chinese pickles can prevent cavities.

Chinese and Israeli researchers say probiotic made from a strain of bacteria found in Chinese pickles can prevent cavities.

Dental caries or cavities, also known as tooth decay, is a breakdown of teeth due to acids made by Streptococcus Mutans. This bacteria is the most common consortium of bacterium in the mouth.

This bacteria’s primary energy source is simple sugars in food. It found on people’s teeth as biofilm (plaque) dissolving the hard tissues of the teeth (enamel, dentin, and cementum) and known the most common disease of the oral cavity.

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Prof. Ariel Kushmaro of Department of Biotechnology Engineering and his colleges in China discovered that extracting strains of Lactobacilli from Sichuan pickles, S. mutans was reduced by 98.4%.

The research published in Frontiers in Microbiology started with 14 types of Sichuan pickles from southwest China. The team extracted 54 different strains of Lactobacilli and found that one, L. plantarum K41, in Chinese pickles reduced the incidence and severity of cavities quite significantly.

That particular strain was also highly tolerant of acids and salts. Subsequent analysis bore out the efficacy of this bacteria strain as a potential for probiotics.

Read more about: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Teeth