A pill to prevent hangovers has arrived, reports Guzzling Greenwood.

It sounds too good to be true, a small, white tablet dietary supplement that helps reduce the ill-effects of drinking by slowing down the release of alcohol by-products in to the body.

Sadly, it probably is.

You might as well ignore the controversy that is likely to be sparked by the planned arrival of RU-21 (named after the legal drinking age for those Stateside) on these shores later this summer.

Bar Talk ordered a pack of 20 of the Californian-made tablets over the internet for about a fiver and put their effectiveness to the test. It was hardly scientific, but we'll leave the laboratory to the experts.

Instead we took to the bar, Victor J's in York, which was serving Czech Budvar on draft, a particularly potent brew which makes the "wife beater" reputation of Stella Artois seem too easily won.

The instructions of the "100 per cent safe and effective" remedy direct users to consume two tablets for every two alcoholic drinks. And that's before you drink them.

So I swilled them down with one of Eastern Europe's finest, crossed my fingers and got stuck in to a night on the razzle dazzle.

It probably would have been best to have a control of someone who took the tablets and didn't drink any alcohol, but strangely no one in the Evening Press office seemed willing to volunteer.

This meant it was difficult to tell if I had kept to the instructions, but the evidence in my pocket (ten pills gone and a wallet full of loose change) pointed to at least partial success.

Unfortunately the thumping headache and aching limbs next morning, in fact the almost complete lack of any will to live, meant the pills probably aren't all they are cracked up to be.

It's difficult to tell if the hi-tech remedy offers any more support for the long-suffering drinker than some fruit, lots of water, a pain killer or a heart-stopping fry-up.

So what's in the pill? The pack shows they contain Vitamin C, as well as succinic acid, fumaric acid and L-glutamine. The latter three probably aren't at the top of the list of many pick-me-ups.

Makers claim the pill will "balance alcohol metabolism" by slowing down a process by which alcohol is broken down into acetaldhyde. This has been linked to alcohol-related diseases as well as skin complaints, sexual problems such as impotence and hangovers.

But alcohol watchdogs have said anything which encourages binge drinking is "bad news". The charity Alcohol Concern said people "might as well eat Smarties".

Nevertheless, it's worth knowing that the supplement is said to have been developed in Russia to help KGB agents drink opponents into submission without getting drunk themselves. Perhaps it works best with vodka?

Most people have learned that the only cast-iron way to escape a hangover is to drink in moderation, but this supposed "protection in your pocket" is bound to attract some curious takers.

Updated: 08:56 Saturday, May 15, 2004