Nigerian girls develop cure for mouth odour, win US Science Awards

Two Nigerian students, Eveshorhema Samuel-Alli and Ibukunoluwa Ruth Oladeinde,  who found cure for mouth odour with walnut, represented Nigeria at an international competition in the United States, where they presented their discovery and beat other competitors to win Life Science Award of $1,000 in Medicine and Health Science. 

Young female scientists, Eveshorhema  and Ibukunoluwa , both 14-year-old Nigerian students, have written Nigeria's name in gold after coming first at an international competition.

The duo, who found cure to mouth odour with walnut, represented Nigeria at the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, California, United States, where they presented their discovery which fetched them the $1,000 prize.

Samuel-Alli and Oladeinde are students of Doregos Private Academy, Ipaja Lagos.

They were presented with the Life Science Award of $1,000 in Medicine and Health Science category, at the Science and Engineering fair, as a result of their research work on solutions for halistosia, also known as mouth odour.

Speaking on their project entitled: "Walnut: Sustainable Solution to Halitosis," Samuel-Alli said the idea for the 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 had not brushed my teeth yet but my breath was already fresh. Then I remembered I had eaten walnut the previous night."

To confirm her suspicion, she ate more walnuts the following night and woke up with fresh breath again and that encouraged them to carry out further research.

"This project actually won us a Life Science Award of $1,000 in the Medicine and Health Science category, courtesy, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society," Samuel-Alli said.

She added that, "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."

Speaking on how they got the go ahead of their parents, she said: "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 and walnut mouthwash.

"We made walnut chewing gum by adding resins and sucrose to chopped walnuts. Also, we made a walnut mouthwash by mixing chopped walnut, water and 10 per cent lime as preservative. One group was given whole walnuts to eat; the 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 monitor their improvement," Samuel-Alli said.

She added: "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, it means the mouth odour is actually very bad.

"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," the scientist explained,

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.

At the end of their experiment, they discovered that walnut could cure bad breath and also has many properties which which include cancer-fighting properties and rare antioxidants.

It also benefits the heart and circulatory system and helps with weight control and improves reproduction in men.

Ronke Sanya