Unjustified use of amber necklaces for teething symptoms alleviation: Succinic acid release underperforms compared with natural skin bacteria production.

Abstract

Background: There is limited evidence of succinic acid release from amber necklace that justifies its biological plausibility.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the release of succinic acid from Baltic amber beads in the presence of Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Design: The Baltic amber beads from the necklace were stratified according to their weight (average 0.05 g ± 0.067). Subsequently, the beads (n = 8) were submerged in 0.9% buffered saline (Control) or brain-heart infusion culture medium in the presence of a commercial strain of S. epidermidis, a resident skin bacterium incubated at 37°C for 24 h or 7 days. The samples were centrifuged, and the supernatants were analyzed by ¹H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Multivariate analyses were adopted using the sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis method (p < .05).

Results: The group incubated with saline solution showed small release of succinic acid only after 7 days. In the groups with S. epidermidis, the release of succinic acid was observed in the both presence and absence of amber beads, indicating that succinic acid is a product released by bacteria.

Conclusions: It was found that amber beads do not exhibit the ability to release expressive succinic acid, especially in a short period of time, which does not justify their use in infants. The most production of succinic acid is tributed to S. epidermidis.