This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives: Previous studies have suggested that the lactic acid bacterium, Weissella cibaria CMU has beneficial effects on halitosis, but its precise effects have not been evaluated in human

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... ubjects. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of W. cibaria CMU for reducing halitosis in adults (20-70 years old) whose exhibited volatile sulfur compound (VSC) concentrations exceeded 0.015 ng/mL and who scored ≥2 points in a halitosis sensory evaluation test. Methods: A total of 60 participants were assigned to an experimental group (treated with W. cibaria CMU) and a control group (placebo). In total, 58 out of 60 participants (experimental group, 29; control group, 29) were ultimately included in gas chromatography (OralChroma) analyses of VSC concentrations and halitosis sensory evaluation tests. Results: We found that the VSC concentration decreased by 0.030±0.062 ng/ml in the experimental group after 8 weeks (P=0.0138) and increased by 0.005±0.124 ng/ml in the control group (P=0.8198). However, the difference between groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05). In a sensory evaluation test, a significantly lower score was obtained for the experimental group than for the control group. Conclusions: Overall, VSC concentrations and sensory evaluation scores were lower in the experimental group than in the control group, but only the latter was statistically significant. Thus, we conclude that W. cibaria CMU is involved in the reduction of halitosis.