FOOD FOR PREVENTING DENTAL CARIES AND ORAL CAVITY-CARING AGENT COMPOSITION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safe and inexpensive biofilm formation-inhibiting and biofilm-decomposing component easily receivable by a consumer and also usable for a functional food. SOLUTION: The composition for preventing dental caries, the oral cavity-caring agent such as a mouth-rinsing agent and a dentifrice, and the food for preventing the dental caries contain a component contained in a water-soluble extract obtained by extracting an aqueous solution from mushrooms, especially shiitake mushroom and containing a component for promoting the prevention of the dental caries by promoting the decomposition as an active ingredient. The invention includes a protein extract of a mushroom carpophore having α-glucan in a cell wall such as the shiitake mushroom and a component preferably obtained by subjecting the carpophore to crushing extraction with a buffer containing a ≥0.4M salt. The invention also includes not only the carpophore but also a water-soluble extracted component from a cultured product of a mycelium, or an aqueous solution accumulated in a mushroom bed in the mushroom bed culture of the mushroom. COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT