DMSO Greenhouse Emission from Human Skin and Breath provides evidence of Methyl Radicals
Self-Experimentation by a German scientist who swallowed isotopically labeled Dimethyl Sulfoxide, applied it to his Skin and added it to his Blood samples, found Methane Gas was evolved.
Self-Experimentation is covered by regulations in some countries, so German DMSO researcher Frank Keppler appointed a “surrogate investigator” to obtain informed consent from himself !!
Here is his outline of Self-Experimentation1 with DMSO.
Note that the Keppler self-experiments used 99% 13Carbon and 99.9% 2Hydrogen (Deuterium) isotopically labeled DMSO to distinguish gas emissions from other processes in his body.
Keppler was satisfied that Bacterial conversion of his oral DMSO was unlikely, but I am more sceptical because E. coli in the Human Gut contains the Molybdenum-containing enzyme DMSO reductase.2
In addition most people associate Human Methane Greenhouse emission3 with Farts.4
There are of course serious scientific studies of this.5
I guess Methane has no trouble permeating the Human Gut lining and entering the bloodstream, so will add references later if found.
However bacterial contamination of Keppler’s Skin and Blood samples is unlikely, so I recommend a thorough read of the free paper.
The supplementary zip file includes a picture of the incubation chamber used by Keppler on his arm.
Note that he exposed his arm to natural light and observed increased labeled Methane emission.
Methyl Radical Consequences
In my previous article6, I mentioned generation of Ethane (C2H6) in thermal decompositon of DMSO, which is evidence of dimerization of Methyl Radical.7
In 2012 the association of Methyl Radical with Melanoma via UV radiation was beginning to be discussed in relation to DNA damage or other cellular processes.8
A very interesting paper published in 2014 and mentioned in the 2023 Keppler paper, is that by Althoff and coworkers (including Keppler) who used Vitamin C, the Iron compound Ferrihydrite (FH; 5Fe2O3 9H2O) and Hydrogen Peroxide to generate Methane from Sulfur compounds at room temperature.9
I look forward to reader comments.
Frank Keppler, Mihály Boros and Daniela Polag. 2023. Radical-Driven Methane Formation in Humans Evidenced by Exogenous Isotope-Labeled DMSO and Methionine. Antioxidants 12:1381. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/12/7/1381
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMSO_reductase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence
Syed Hamza Bin Waqar and Aiman Rehan. 2019. Methane and Constipation-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Entwining Pillars of Emerging Neurogastroenterology. https://www.cureus.com/articles/20185-methane-and-constipation-predominant-irritable-bowel-syndrome-entwining-pillars-of-emerging-neurogastroenterology#!/
DMSO Explosion Warning
As a former laboratory Chemical Safety Officer and handler of Explosive substances, I have been interested in Disasters caused by Ignorance for decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_radical
Adriana Taveira da Cruz and Miriam Galvonas Jasiulionis. 2012. miRNAs and Melanoma: How Are They Connected? https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2012/528345
Frederik Althoff, Kathrin Benzing, Peter Comba, Colin McRoberts, Derek R. Boyd, Steffen Greiner and Frank Keppler. 2014. Abiotic methanogenesis from organosulphur compounds under ambient conditions. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5205