Dimethyl sulfone: isolation from cows' milk

Williams KI, Burstein SH, Layne DS · Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine

Five samples of pasteurised cows' milk contained 6.1 to 8.2 mg of dimethyl sulfone per litre by gas chromatography, and 7 mg was crystallised and matched to an authentic sample by melting point and infrared spectrum; DMSO was below the 0.5 mg/L detection limit, and milk left to sour for four days held the same amount, so the authors attribute the compound to the animal's own metabolism rather than to micro-organisms. The paper's own introduction records two earlier animal-tissue isolations, from dried cows' blood and from beef adrenals, both in 1940.

Population

Pasteurised cows' milk from local markets (analytical isolation, no subjects)

Intervention

Chemical isolation and identification of dimethyl sulfone

Limitations

A one-page 1966 analytical note with no indexed abstract, five samples, and no dietary or joint context. It documents milk as an animal source at milligrams per litre; it is not the only animal isolation, and it says nothing about meat, bone, cartilage or stock. Funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.