Beer: Effects on saliva secretion and composition

We investigated the effects of beer consumption on salivary secretion rate, pH, uric acid and amylase concentration. Ten healthy volunteers consumed either 300 ml top-fermented beer or the same volume of non-alcoholic beer at 1 week intervals. The consumption of beer induced a transient reduction in the volume of chewing-stimulated whole saliva after 15 min. No signifi cant changes were observed in the salivary pH and concentrations of uric acid and amylase.