THE US food giant Procter & Gamble has come up with a chewing gum that it says really will cure bad breath (WO 03/017775).
Unlike its previous gums, which only try to mask the unpleasant smell of substances such as hydrogen sulphide, methyl mercaptan and putrescine, Procter & Gamble says its new gum absorbs the smell. The secret is to use a mint-flavoured mixture of zeolite and silica as the chewy base-filler material. The zeolite polymer of aluminium and silicon oxides will trap the smelly gases in voids within its crystalline matrix.
