Pharm students of USTM Develop Chewable Herbal Dentifrice
9th Mile, Khanapara, Ri Bhoi, June 1, 2024: A team of three talented students from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) along with their mentor faculty have secured the First Prize for their start-up idea, ‘Formulation of a Chewable Dentifrice,’ at INNOVATE-A-THON 1.0. The event was organized by the Atal Incubation Centre, NIPER-Guwahati Foundation, and supported by the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India. The team will receive annual funding support from NIPER.
Gouranga Baruah, Lobsang Tashi, and Riya Salam, all B. Pharm final year students, under the guidance of Dr Sudarshana Borah Khanikor, Associate Professor and Vice-Principal, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USTM have created a chewable dentifrice product which is a gummy, chewing gum like material which would help in the deep cleansing of our teeth.
In this regard, Dr Sudarshana Borah Khanikor stated that the development of a chewable gummy dentifrice from an ethnomedicinal plant in North East India will be user-friendly as well as eco-friendly. Dr Khanikor said, “These are sugarless products that contain materials that are highly beneficial for our teeth and for cleaning purposes and do not contain any toxins. Application of these would be convenient over the regular toothpaste and mouthwashes because of being toxin-free, user friendly, and at the same time, there will be economic use of water. This would also induce teeth whitening properties and can help to get rid of halitosis and other periodontal diseases”.