In Vitro Screening of Tea Leaves Effective Against Dental Caries

In orcer to examine the feasibility of the use of tea drinking for caries prevention in public health, the fluoride content of tea leaf infusions was analysed in 190 samples obtained from inside and outside Japan.Fluoride content in the tea infusion showed wide variation ranging from 15mg/kg to 1800mg/kg dry weight of the sample. For the purpose of the caries prevention, selection of the type of tea is the most important prerequisite.The content of fluoride in tea leaf infusions depends on at least three factors: location of the plantation, probably a nature of the soil containing fluoride; the tea bush, and the age of the leaves.For this reason high quality commercially processed tea would not be appropriate, but cheap Bancha prepared from the aged leaves may be more suitable, Chewing pickled tea leaves may be a better preventive against pit and fissure caries for the people in Burma and Thailand.Acknowledgement: We express our appreciasion to Dr. R. Noor, professor Mustopo, and Dr. Soelaiman of Indonesia for their kind assistance in collecting tea samples, and to professor Isra Yuktanandana and Mr. Chit Khin Way for collecting pickled tea leaves in Thailand and Burma.