Homemade remedy with orange to regain taste and smell

Roasting an orange until it turns black and then peeling it, mashing the pulp into a puree, and mixing it with a bit of brown sugar is the homemade remedy that has become popular on TikTok, as it has helped some people regain their taste and smell (you can watch the video here).Shadia Asencio, editorial director of Kiwilimón, previously spoke with specialists about how to train the sense of smell to recover it and this consists of “deliberately sniffing daily for three months. You will need lemon, a rose or a shot glass with rose water, some smoked food, a shot glass of vinegar, a shot glass of anise, and eucalyptus oil.”However, social media is filled with testimonials from people for whom the homemade remedy with orange helped them regain their sense of taste and smell after having COVID-19. Although anosmia and ageusia are already major symptoms of this disease, there is still not enough research to support that homemade remedies like this one actually work, but there is also no evidence that it is harmful.Homemade remedy to recover taste and smellThe remedy is very simple and consists of burning an orange over an open flame on the stove, then, being careful not to burn yourself, peel or cut the skin of the orange. The next step is to mash the fruit, mix it with a little brown sugar, and then eat the puree.People who have tried it report that they were able to taste the mixture immediately, while others say it does nothing, or that it helped their taste buds react after a few hours.The person responsible for making this homemade remedy go viral was Kemar Gary Lalor, a Canadian whose mother fell ill with COVID and lost her taste and smell; when he also began to have these symptoms, he asked his mother how she had recovered them, and she referred him to the remedy she remembered from her childhood in Jamaica.So far, the evidence is completely anecdotal and this remedy has not been studied, so from a scientific point of view, there is no basis that it works. Buzzfeed news US conducted a test with a member of their team who was recently ill with COVID, but reported that the remedy had not been successful for her; however, it was successful for her boyfriend.In the same article, Buzzfeed reports that a doctor from the UK also tried the remedy and mentioned on TikTok that “the cooked orange could be functioning as a kind of physical therapy for your senses,” that is, as olfactory training.So this homemade remedy for recovering taste and smell could be part of your olfactory training, although you cannot be sure that it will return your senses immediately.