A Frenchman claims he has invented a pill that makes bodily gases smell like chocolate.

Christian Poincheval, 65, from Gesvres, north-west France, says his capsules will not only ease indigestion but also eliminate foul odours from flatulence.

In place of such malodorous whiffs, he says, users of his herbal concoctions will instead emit sweet smelling and inoffensive scents.

Chocolate body odour: A Frenchman has invented a pill to make users' flatulence smell like chocolate

Previously Mr Poincheval has sold pills to scent silent but deadly olfactory outrages with rose or violet, but now he has brought out a chocolate version just in time for Christmas.

'The Father Christmas fart pill that gives your farts the scent of chocolate' retails at €9.99 for a jar of 60 and offers benefits including 'the reduction of gas and bloating'.

'It’s a nice present for the festive season,' he told newspaper Ouest France.

Mr Poincheval sells his products direct to the public on his website pilulepet.com (pilulepet translates to 'fart-pill'), where he appears in photographs posing as an imp.

The pills are a concoction of charcoal, fennel, seaweed, plant resin and blueberry, with added cocoa peel for the Christmas chocolate editions.

Mr Poincheval says he came up with the idea for his fart pills after a heavy meal with friends.

The pills are a concoction of charcoal, fennel, seaweed, plant resin and blueberry, with added cocoa peel for the Christmas chocolate editions (file image)

'We were at the table with friends and after a hearty meal, our farts were so smelly we nearly suffocated,' says a statement on his website.

'The winds were not very pleasant for our fellow diners. Something had to be done.'

The business has been going since 2006, and Mr Poincheval told the Telegraph he now sells several hundred pills a month.