Botox, the drug of choice for people with wrinkles, may also help those with smelly armpits.

Researchers in Germany have found that injecting the drug into armpits can reduce sweating and body odour.

They tested their theory on 16 people. Each received a botox injection in one armpit and a harmless solution in the other. They each wore a t-shirt for 24 hours.

It is very effective Elizabeth Jones Boston Clinic

The area around the armpits was then cut out and given to another group who were asked to rate the intensity of the odour on a scale of zero for unpleasant to six for pleasant.

Smell test

According to researchers at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, pieces of the t-shirts which were exposed to armpits which had not been treated with botox recorded an average score of 2.69.

However, those that had been exposed to a botox-treated armpit scored just 1.83.

The volunteers were then asked to rate smells from the t-shirts on a scale of minus three for unpleasant to plus three for pleasant.

The average score for t-shirts not exposed to a botox-treated armpit was -1.14. This compares to plus 0.46 for t-shirts exposed to armpits which had been injected with botox.

Marc Heckmann, who led the study, said armpits which had been treated with botox were also much drier.

Elizabeth Jones, manager of the Boston Clinic in central London which offers botox injections to the public, said it was an effective treatment.

"I have had it myself," she told BBC News Online. "It is very effective and very painless. It takes just minutes and lasts for six months.

"You don't need to wear deodorant during that time. A lot of our patients have had this treatment."

The study is published in the journal Archives of Dermatology.