Kathmandu, May 20: A former Fulbright scholar in Nepal has come across a unique alternative sweetener and that in turn has led to discovery of plant antimicrobial compounds that may be alternatives for chemicals now used to control gum disease.

Anne Desjardins, who along with colleagues wrote about the discovery in the journal of natural products, first came across the plant Mussaenda Macrophylla, known in Nepal as Dhobini, in the Marshyandi valley in l993, according to USEF Nepal, a bulletin of the United States Education Foundation.

When she chewed the small, yellow-brown Dhobini fruit and drank from her water bottle it suddenly began to taste sweet and delicious, better by far than the soft drinks now ubiquitous in Nepal.

Later, while visiting the University of Illinois, she told about her chance discovery to Dr. Douglas Kingborn, an expert in alternative sweeteners. He was fascinated by the story of the sweetness-inducing fruit from Nepal, and asked her to find out more about it.

Her search took her near the Gurung village of Chhamdila just west of the Marshyandi river.

One of her friends identified the mystery fruit as Dhobini, a shrub common in nearby woodlands. Locals have long used various parts of the Dhobini plant as treatment for sore mouths and throats.

Although woodland plants are widely used in Nepali traditional medicines, the active compounds in many of these plants are largely unknown.

She asked local village friends to collect more Dhobini root bark, and colleagues at the Nepal Aagricultural Research Council assisted in identifying Dhobini as Mussaenda.

She took 1 kg of dried root bark back to Illinois for extraction and analysis by Dr. Kinghorn and his students.

They discovered a heretofore unknown sweetness-inducing compound, which they have named Mussaendoside W.

They also discovered six compounds with antimicrobial activity against a bacterium that is the most common cause of human gum disease.

The Dhobini story highlights the importance of preserving both the Nepal woodlands and Nepali ethnomedical knowledge of woodland plants.