2 Nigerian Students Find Cure For Halitosis Using Walnut

“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 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.

“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.

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

 “Also, we made a walnut mouthwash mixing chopped walnut, water and 10 per cent lime as preservative.

“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.