Shiitake Mushroom Extracts and Dental Caries Prevention
What it found
Shiitake extracts reduced plaque bacteria and mineral loss in lab tests, and a small human trial found they lowered plaque metabolic activity.
The authors say the mushroom shows promise for preventing tooth decay.
What they found
Studies in people
Human trial on plaque
In a small human trial, volunteers who rinsed with a shiitake extract solution twice daily for 2 weeks had reduced metabolic activity in their dental plaque.
Shiitake dermatitis
The only known adverse reaction from eating shiitake is shiitake dermatitis, a skin rash that appears 24 to 48 hours after eating raw or undercooked mushrooms and clears up in about 2 weeks.
Animal and lab studies
Plaque bacteria in lab
In lab tests, shiitake extracts stopped Streptococcus mutans and related bacteria from sticking to tooth surfaces and helped detach them from biofilms. The extracts also disrupted bacterial cell division.
Tooth mineral loss
In a lab model of tooth decay, low molecular weight fractions of shiitake extract reduced mineral loss from dentin and enamel.
Erythritol and bacteria
Shiitake contains erythritol, a sweetener that cavity-causing bacteria did not use to make plaque or acid in lab tests.
Animal study on caries
Rats infected with Streptococcus mutans and fed a cavity-causing diet with 0.25% shiitake extract had lower caries scores and less firmly adherent plaque than rats fed the diet alone.
What the authors conclude
“There exists convincing evidence of this mushroom to be used as a functional food for the prevention of oral diseases and the betterment of oral health as a whole.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say there is convincing evidence that shiitake mushroom can be used as a functional food for preventing oral diseases and improving oral health.
- They call for further work to isolate other active ingredients and explore suitable ways to deliver them in foods.
- They suggest that using isolated compounds in controlled release systems could enhance anticaries effects and help overcome antibiotic resistance without altering oral microflora.
How it was done
Dental caries affects most people worldwide, and treatment costs keep rising. The authors wanted to explore preventive foods, and shiitake had not been assessed in depth for oral health benefits.
The authors reviewed studies on shiitake cultivation, extract preparation, active compounds, and effects on oral bacteria and plaque. These included lab tests, animal studies, and one human trial where volunteers rinsed with a shiitake extract solution, a placebo, or a mouthwash for 2 weeks each.
What it can’t tell you
- The human trial was small and only looked at plaque metabolism over 2 weeks, so it cannot show whether shiitake prevents cavities over time.
- Most studies were done in lab dishes or animals, and the authors note these results are hard to apply directly to people because the human mouth may affect how well the compounds work.
- The review did not test shiitake itself in a large or long-term human study, so it cannot show cause and effect for cavity prevention in people.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- There are no conflicts of interest.
- Authors work at
- Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, India
The paper
- Title
- The Unexplored Anticaries Potential of Shiitake Mushroom
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Avinash J, Vinay S, Jha K, Das D, Goutham BS, Kumar G (2016). The Unexplored Anticaries Potential of Shiitake Mushroom. Pharmacognosy reviews. doi:10.4103/0973-7847.194039Free full textPubMed 28082791DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error