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Question of the Day
Question:
Gary Hughes of Santa Cruz writes, "Hipposudoric Acid? That's a bit much." And Fan Ameke, in a private conversation, intimated that this was among the things "that we know you just make up."Answer:
So I "just" make things up, do I? Perhaps what you call "making things up" is another name for what I call the divine faculty of creation. Let's not discount the legitimacy of invention, people. It is, after all, the basis for fiction, art, music... the list goes on. But I did not make up Hipposudoric Acid. Why should I? And what is it, anyway, I hear some of you plaintively inquiring. Don't deny it! I'm Dr. Hal! I can hear you! "So where does it come from?" comes the sneering, snarky rejoinder. "Hippos? As in Hippopotamuses, or Hippopotami?" Well... yes, is the answer. This goo does ooze from the skin of the ferocious African "river horse," the Hippopotamus. It's not exactly sweat, by the way. It's one of two components (the other is Norhipposudoric acid) of a naturally secreted sunscreen, which, according to Japanese scientist Kimiko Hashimoto of Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, if industrious chemists could contrive more-stable derivatives, could be of great use to humanity. "These pigments," she says, "would be seeds of pharmaceutically important compounds." (see Science News, Vol. 165, No.22) The rampaging hippopotamuses (the correct plural) of Darkest Africa have long been said to "sweat blood" by Clyde Beatty and other Great White Hunter types of the past. This we now know is inaccurate. The red-orange exudation, which is not blood, can block microbial growth and some ultraviolet light. The pigments are highly acidic compounds containing carbon rings. And the secretions aren't technically sweat because hippos don't have the small sebaceous glands that produce it. Instead, much larger glands, located deeper within the pachydermatous hide of the beast, release the liquid through skin holes large enough to see with the naked eye, although you probably wouldn't want to get that close. Hippos are chronically bad-tempered and will slash at you, or each other with their razor-sharp tusks at the mildest provocation. But they don't get infections, though they rip each other in fights over territory or females. Why? Hipposudoric acid and its brother compound also have antibiotic properties-- as well as serving as the ideal organic sunscreen. That's why you never see a hippo with sunburn. Dr. Hashimoto suspects that the animals synthesize the pigments from common precursors such as the amino acid tyrosine. Perhaps the ultimate stable sunscreen has been found in this useful liquid. The only problems at the moment seem to be (1.) safely getting it from bad-tempered hippos and (2.) that it turns you red-orange. But Science marches on.
Askdrhal.com by
Jascha Ephraim,
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