Nigerian Teens Made an Amazing Discovery

Charming teengirls age 14 & 15 proudly presented their brilliant innovation at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, USA.

Nigerian teens present their project. Photo: ynaija.com Eveshorhema Samuel-Alli and Ibukunoluwa Oladeinde, two teens from Nigeria, greatly represented the country with their research about the overcoming of Halistosia a.k.a. bad breath. Mouth odor is considered to be a rather embarrassing problem for anyone. There are many reasons that can cause it, for example – bad dental hygiene, smoking, infections, health problems, some specific medications etc. Halitosis can be as occasional as chronic problem as well. Except being very unpleasant itself, bad breath can also cause a lot of social problems, even such as troubles with communication. In their report, girls from Doregos Private Academy in Lagos found a solution of this issue with a help of African walnut (Coula Edulis). They discovered, that this product can be quite useful in curing bad breath. The idea of this project came to girls during a school trip to one of the rural areas of Nigeria. “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.” – said Eveshorhema Samuel-Alli. And then students decided to continue their research. They invited 35 volunteers from their school. Members of the experiment were divided into 2 groups and ate different walnut products such as chewing gum or walnut mouthwash. During the experiment volunteers did not brush their teeth, but ate walnut products in the morning and in the evening. At the end of their studies girls stated that the ones who ate walnut had less mouth bacteria which caused bad breath. It means that despite being cancer-preventive, positive for heart, weight control, circulatory system and reproductive system, African walnut can also help to get rid of mouth odor. Teen girls won a Life Science Award in the category of Medicine and Health Science and got an award of $1000. Intel International Science and Engineering Fair is a world largest competition for the students of elder grades. Children from more than 70 counrties participated in it in 2014. With their independant researches they compete for more than $5 million.