Fig. 1 Picture of Sushi

Is wasabi, more than just food? Ever wonder what else it can do?

Welcome to my website on the effect of Wasabia japonica on mouth bacteria. Wasabia japonica is also known as wasabi (see figure 1). Wasabi is a green paste used primarily as a condiment for seafood dishes such as sushi, native to Japan. From doing this project, I was able to learn, not only is wasabi good with sushi, but it's good for our body too.

Fig. 2 Picture of May Choi

My name is May Choi (see figure 2) and I am a grade nine student attending Simon Fraser Junior High School. I began working on this idea for about 2 years when I first came up with this idea. It started out when I was eating sushi with my family.(see figure 3). My dad, as usual, complains about his bad teeth, so I decided to help him. Since we were eating sushi and dipping it in wasabi, I began to wonder if this horseradish would kill mouth bacteria since its really hot. My dad thought this was very interesting so we searched the internet for support for my idea and that is how my journey began.

Fig. 3 Picture of Sushi

This project was also presented at the local science fair and my partner, Dorothy Hung helped me with the experiments (see figure 4). Unfortunately, she was too busy to do the website with me this year.

So I started off, wondering if wasabi would inhibit the growth of bacteria. So I conducted three experiments under different experimental conditions. After we got this idea, I began to spend a lot of time researching on topics related to our topic such as the wasabi plant, tooth decay, and mouth bacteria. I started to plan out all of my experiments in January 2003 and began to experiment in February and March.

So I hope you enjoy and learn a lot of interesting things from my website! Have fun!

My working logs are not posted on the website. If you want to view them you can email me at Wa_keke@hotmail.com

Virtual Science Fair Website