AFRICAN / JAMAICAN CHEWSTICK

Garcinia Kola, Gouania Lupiloides, Salvadora Persica

COMMON NAMES: African chewstick, Jamaican chewstick, Siwak.

Used as a toothpaste, African/Jamaican Chewsticks will remove tarter, kills bacteria that causes tooth decay, stop bleeding gums and tighten loose teeth.

Brushing our teeth - such a commonplace activity today, has been around for a long time. Egyptians were concerned about their dental hygiene. We know this today because they also had the good habit of being entombed with all their treasures. So we were able to discover that tombs from 3000 years before Christ contained small tree branches whose ends had been frayed into soft fibers. A variety of oral hygiene measures have been performed since the dawn of time. This has been verified by various excavations done all over the world, in which toothpicks, chewsticks, tree twigs, linen strips, birds' feathers, animal bones and porcupine quills were recovered. Those that originate from plants are tasty twigs and although primitive, they represented a transitional step towards the modern toothbrush. It has been stated that about seventeen plants could be counted as natural sources for several of these oral hygiene devices.

Dentists are scarce in many parts of Africa, particularly in rural areas. Although diet plays a major role in causing dental caries, the practice of dental hygiene is also important. While toothpaste and toothbrushes are widely used by the sector of the population with a high level of formal education, toothpaste consumption is still low and chewing sticks are still in common use in many parts of Africa, particularly West Africa and the Middle East. Even when people would prefer to use toothbrushes, they do not have access to toothpaste due to high cost or remoteness. As a result, continued access to popular and effective sources of chewing sticks that have antibacterial properties, makes the chewstick important as a primary health care measure. It has been determined that chewsticks not only contain substances that possess antibacterial properties, but have astringent, detergent and abrasive properties as well. These properties have encouraged some toothpaste laboratories to incorporate powdered stems and/or root material in their products. The chemical constituents of Salvadora Persica for example, contain trimethyamines, alkaloids, chlorides, high amounts of fluoride and silica, sulphur, vitamin C and small amounts of tannins, saponins, flavonoids and sterols.

Studies of bacteria taken directly from patients' mouths support a possible link between gum and heart disease. By exposing those samples to human blood platelets, researchers at Temple University School of Dentistry and Medicine have further confirmed a possible link between periodontal bacteria and heart disease.4 Almost immediately after exposure of human platelets to the dental plaque bacteria, the platelets began to clump together. Out of all the periodontal bacteria that was tested, only Porphyromanas gingivalis caused this clumping, which is a key step in the formation of bloodstream thrombi (blockage).

Porphyromanas gingivalis is the most important bacterial cause of destructive gum diseases in adults. The Temple research findings further support and expand a possible link between periodontal disease and development of arthrosclerotic heart disease, a condition resulting from plaque build-up and constriction of coronary heart arteries, and strokes affecting the brain. The importance of these findings is that at least 36 million American adults have some form of destructive periodontal disease, which leads to loosening and loss of teeth. Porphyromanas gingivalis is very frequently in dental plaque causing this disease. These people may be at increased risk of getting heart disease and strokes if Porphyromanas gingivalis from their mouth gets into the bloodstream and clumps platelets similar to what was seen in the laboratory.