It has been assumed that nitrite, one of the precursor of N-nitrosamine, in human saliva must have been formed from salivary nitrate through the action of microorganism in the oral cavity. In this paper, we have tested the concentration of nitrite and nitrate in human saliva and the degrees of nitrate reduction by oral microflora and identified some bacteria which were able to reduce nitrate. The concentration of nitrite and nitrate was 1.7~9.5ppm and 9.0~28.5ppm respectively. The numbers of total bacteria and nitrate reducing bacteria in four korean human saliva sample were 15~63${ imes}10^8$ CFU and 1.0~6.0${ imes}10^8$ CFU and the main nitrate reducing bacteria were Streptococcus uberis which was presented in large quantities and showed remarkable reductive activity. Lastly, we knowed that N-dimethylnitrosamine was formed by the reaction between dimethylamine and nitrite in the presence of St. uberis in vitro.