Toothpaste made of banana peels

18-year-old Mikail Bahar from the German city of Essen has succeeded in obtaining an extract from banana peels that combats the main cause of tooth decay, reports the German website derwesten.de. This won him the regional edition of the reputable 'Jugend forscht' (youth research) competition.

Bahar once saw in TV that South Americans were brushing their teeth with a powder made from banana peels. This made him curious and years of research followed. He wanted to know how this worked exactly. The countless hours spent on this project have now paid off: he was able to show that the plant substance catechin is the active substance in the banana peel.

The 18-year-old started his research as a school project for biology. After the project ended he continued his research: for almost a year and a half he spent his free time in laboratories and the science lab at his school. He was supported in this from all sides: a research centre from Aachen offered him free tooth decay bacteria. He received extensive analysis from China and the Netherlands and he was allowed to conduct experiments in a hospital. Now that Mikail has found the extract, he wants to continue developing a toothpaste prototype, with which he then intends to enter in the national 'Jugend forscht' competition in March.