Egyptians beat the world to inventing the toothpaste. While the Egyptians had wine as one of the major ingredients of their toothpaste, the Romans after much research and development used human urine as the main ingredient. In fact, this Roman toothpaste was so popular among the profligate Roman aristocracy that human urine was imported from Portugal. It sounds ludicrous that the Romans used urinary products as toothpastes but the teeth whitening potential of urine has been recognized by modern science as it contains an abundance of teeth brightening ammonia molecules. Urine found good use in toothpastes and mouth washing liquids till the 18th century but, maybe, a new perception of hygiene dawned by then.
