Oral Health Care with Jungbunzlauer ERYLITE®

Interview with Alina Böhringer,
Technical Service Manager at Jungbunzlauer International AG

Erythritol is a well established sweetener in food applications. How does it find its way into oral care? 

Polyols are known for their positive impact on oral health. They have non-cariogenic properties since they cannot be metabolised by bacteria in the oral cavity. This is especially relevant for pathogenic bacteria responsible for oral biofilms such as Streptococcus mutans. 

Several studies describe the effect and suggest mechanisms for more common polyols such as xylitol and sorbitol, but only recently included erythritol. 

However, study designs differ much and results are hardly comparable. Now, we conducted own in vitro experiments with realistic exposure times and polyol concentrations. 

According to your own results, did erythritol show an inhibitory effect on biofilm growth?

Yes. We are happy to conclude that we see significant effects of erythritol. We see that a treatment with erythritol results in reduced numbers of colony forming units (CFU), which expresses a lower bacterial viability. Treated samples also show reduced bacterial membrane integrity in fluorescence microscopy. And last but not least, we measured reduced amounts of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in a luminescence assay. This is an indicator of reduced metabolic activity of treated cells.

The results are comparable to those of xylitol in the same test setup. 

Please share some details with our readers. How were the experiments conducted?

External in vitro testing was completed. In one approach, a “tooth brushing scenario“ was mimicked, considering a usage level of erythritol in toothpaste or tooth tablets of 10 wt%, a 1:2 dilution by saliva and a typical tooth brushing time of three minutes. In a second approach, a „mouthwash scenario“ was mimicked, assuming a concentration of 10% of polyol in the mouthwash product, an undiluted application and a mouth rinsing time of one minute. 

Biofilms were grown on substrates for several hours, then treated with erythritol or xylitol for a short time in the scenarios mentioned before and subsequently provided with sucrose to mimick sugar consumption after oral hygiene for some hours. Then, the evaluation was done with CFU counting, fluorescence microscopy and luminescence measures. Erythritol and xylitol were compared with each other and with a water control.    

What makes Jungbunzlauer ERYLITE^® a valuable substance, especially in oral care?

Our erythritol is considered natural because it occurs in nature and the production process is based on a non-genetically modified yeast fermentation of plant based raw materials. 

Erythritol is a versatile natural sweetener both in non-food and food applications. 

In non-food application it is a multifunctional ingredient: in oral care it imparts a clean sweet taste and it has inhibitory effects on biofilm growth. Erythritol is formulated into toothpastes, mouth washes or tooth tabs. It is also used as low abrasive powder in tooth air-polishing. In personal care it is mainly used as moisturiser, in hair care it improves combability and foaming. 

In food applications, it works great as sugar substitution with zero calories and has a high digestive tolerance. 

Erythritol is safe for use in animal care products, unlike xylitol. 

Like all Jungbunzlauer products, ERYLITE^® profits from our sustainability initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the like. Details are available in our annual Sustainability Report on our website www.jungbunzlauer.com.

Would you like to add anything to conclude the interview?

Watch out for our article titled «Positive impact of erythritol on oral biofilm» which will be published in March 2023 on our website. The article contains additional information and graphics on the test setup and results as well as interesting literature on the different mechanisms of action. 

Please feel free to contact us:

www.jungbunzlauer.com