Dental caries-inducing microorganism cells lytic enzyme

Claim 1

A composition for preventing and treating dental caries comprising a conventional oral hygiene carrier, particularly including water or mouth wash, chewing gum or troche, tooth powder, toothpaste or ointment, said carrier containing as an essential active ingredient an enzyme capable of lysing cells of dental caries-inducing microorganisms which is produced by cultivating a Streptomyces microorganism selected from the group consisting of Streptomyces diastatochromogenes (ATCC 21481), Streptomyces farinosus (ATCC 21482), Streptomyces globisporus (ATCC 21553) and Streptomyces griseus Var. H-402 (ATCC 21483) and mutants thereof and recovering the produced enzyme from the culture broth, said enzyme being contained in a dose unit of an effective amount of from 1 to 5,000 units, one unit of activity being defined as that amount of enzyme giving an initial linear decrease in optical density of 0.001 per minute of the reduction ratio of said bacteria cells, in turbidity, when the optical density of the reaction mixture of said cells, in lytic reaction with said enzyme, is measured at 600 mμ of a photoelectric colorimeter.