WOW: 2 Nigerian Students Find Cure For Halitosis Using Walnut

HALITOSIS or bad breath, is an unpleasant odour of the mouth present on exhaled breath. According to medical experts, this very embarrassing condition which can be acute (occasional) or chronic (long-lasting), could be caused by several factors including food, poor dental hygiene, tobacco products, health problems, dry mouth, mouth infections, dentures or braces and medications.

Bad breath has caused otherwise well qualified people to lose employment opportunities, caused job losses, and friendships/marriages to crash. The saying that 'only your best friend will tell you that your mouth smells,' is probably true in some countries but not in Africa. The best they do is to avoid you completely.

In their search for a solution, two students of Doregos Private Academy, Ipaja, Lagos, Eveshorhema Sophia Samuel-Alli and Ibukunoluwa Ruth Oladeinde, carried out research on African walnut (Coula edulis), a member of the tree nut family common in Nigeria. At the end, they discovered that apart from its cancer-fighting properties, rare antioxidants, benefits for the heart and circulatory system, weight control, improved reproductive health in men, brain health and diabetes, walnut could also cure bad breath.

In this chat with Vanguard Learning, they spoke on the project titled Walnut: Sustainable Solution to Halitosis, the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in Los Angeles, USA and the special award they received.

Excerpts:

According to Eveshorhema, the idea for this project came while on a school trip to a rural area in Nigeria where the host community served them walnuts.
"When I woke up in the morning, I hadn't brushed my teeth yet but my breath was already fresh. Then I remembered I had eaten walnuts the previous night." To confirm her suspicion, she ate more nuts the following night and awoke with fresh breath again and that made them to carry out further research.

The experiment:
“The Halitosis project has to do with mouth odour and we used a common Nigerian snack, the walnut, to cure mouth odour because it is a very embarrassing problem. Your best friend won't tell you that your mouth is smelling so we had to find a solution to it.
Consent forms

"We conducted this experiment using 35 volunteers who were students of our school. we sent out parents consent forms and when we received the parents' consent, we continued the experiment. The volunteers were divided into four groups. The duo then made two different walnut products.

Walnut chewing gum:
 “We made walnut chewing gum by adding resins and sucrose to chopped walnuts.

Walnut mouthwash:
 “Also, we made a walnut mouthwash mixing chopped walnut, water and 10 per cent lime as preservative.
One group was given whole walnuts to eat; they second group was given walnut chewing gum; the third was given walnut mouthwash while the last group was given nothing so they were the control group.

“They took the walnut morning and night. We then observed them and recorded the results. They did not brush their teeth for the duration of the experiment. They were going only on walnut so we would be able to see the improvement,” said Eveshorhema Samuel-Alli.

“After this, we conducted an experiment using Lead tri-oxo nitrate (v) in which the volunteers were made to blow bubbles into a solution of lead nitrate and water before and after the experiment.

“Before they took the walnut and walnut products, they were made to blow bubbles into the solution and then we recorded how long it took to turn the solution black. What turns the solution black is hydrogen sulphide and that is what causes mouth odour. So if it takes a short time, that means the mouth odour is actually very bad. Then after the experiment, they were also made to blow bubbles into the solution and this time, it was noticed that there was significant time lapse before the solution turned black.

When the control group who had bacteria in their mouths, blew bubbles into the solution, it turned black while it remained clear when the other groups blew bubbles into it. So we knew that the walnut was actually working to cure halitosis.”

Bacterial culture:From the results obtained, the duo suspected that some chemicals like alkaloids, oleic acid and tannins in the African walnut must be killing some of the odour-causing bacteria in the mouth. So they swabbed the mouths of each volunteer, grew the bacteria and counted the number. They found out that those who had the walnut treatment had fewer bacterial load.

“This project actually won us a Life Science Award of $1,000 in the Medicine and Health Science category, courtesy, Sigma Xi Scientific

Posted: at 21-08-2014 10:44 PM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Posted: at 21-08-2014 10:58 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

Woow! Cool! Now all these yeye people wey their mouth the menstruate the smell for here in naijapals  should go for cure.

Posted: at 21-08-2014 11:10 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

very good

Posted: at 22-08-2014 03:47 AM (9 years ago) | Upcoming

Amen

Posted: at 22-08-2014 07:23 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Great minds of Nigeria..they should be encouraged to do more

Posted: at 22-08-2014 08:37 AM (9 years ago) | Newbie

Nigerian got talent even though whites likes taking the credit and condemning Africa discovery. Nano Silver 

Posted: at 22-08-2014 09:02 AM (9 years ago) | Newbie

A usefull information to Everyone. If anyone tell you that you should call any doctor for spiritual help or to make you get rich, pls dont answer them. If you do, you are selling your soul to satan, at the end of the day you will face the consequency and have your self to blame. This fraudsters may apear invisible or visible, PlS be Warned. The bible says, seek first the kingdom of God and his ritheousness, everything will be added unto you. Everything is lncluded money, fame, wealth, perfect health, etc. God will suply all your needs according to his riches in glory. God want us to seek his kingdom first and ritheousness, if we can do that by obeying what God says, riches or wealth, perfect health, protection, favour e.t.c. will authomatically apear in our life to serv us as prince and princess of heaven. Pls my dear brethren dont become slave to money or riches or things of the world, God has created those things to authomatically serv us if only we can obey his commandment. Jesus said i am the way, the truth and life, no one come unto the father except through me(John 14:6 ). I will tell you more on how to be sucessfull through Jesus Christ. Email me at ([email protected])

Posted: at 22-08-2014 09:41 AM (9 years ago) | Newbie

OK NA

Posted: at 22-08-2014 10:04 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

I concur. I totally agree with you on this. A lot O̶̷̩̥̊͡Ƒ African inventions have and are still being credited to them white folks. E.g the internet and the saxophone.

Posted: at 22-08-2014 11:30 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac