Scientists are studying the topic of "how the components in chewing gum dissipate in the mouth during chewing", in order to explore whether the oral delivery of drugs can be controlled by drug chewing gum. They are designing a new robot to regulate chewing tests. The "humanoid chewing robot" developed by the University of Bristol in the UK combines a set of human size mechanical jaws to replicate the chewing actions of typical people. In addition, like the way chewing stimulates human saliva secretion, the robot will also secrete artificial saliva through the connected silicone tube during chewing.


In laboratory tests, the robot and a group of human volunteers chewed gum sweetened with xylitol for 20 minutes. During the whole period, natural and artificial saliva samples were collected from humans and robots every 5 minutes.


The scientists then analyzed the samples to see how the amount of xylitol released from gum and into saliva changed over time. The results of all volunteers and robots were very similar. The maximum release occurred in the first 5 minutes of chewing, and there was little xylitol left by 20 minutes.


Now, it is hoped that the descendants of the chewing robot prototype can be used to evaluate the release rate of drug glue in a standardized and controllable way.


"Bioengineering has been used to create an artificial oral environment that closely mimics the environment found by humans," said lead scientist Dr. Kazem alemzadeh. "Our research shows that chewing robots provide pharmaceutical companies with the opportunity to study drug chewing gum. Using this new method can reduce patient exposure and reduce costs." A paper on the study was recently published in the journal IEEE Journal of biomedical engineering.