Thursday, March 5 2009
Stand Up for Wine
No thanks, I had centipede eggs for lunch.
Once you smell a rotten egg, you never forget the distinct aroma of hydrogen sulphide gas. Winemakers tend to know about it because it's a by-product of yeast metabolism, showing up in all fermentations too a greater or lesser degree. Once in a great while something can go awry, and too much H2S will be formed. Fortunately, in small quantities it can be driven off with a little sulphite and some vigorous stirring, and in moderate amounts it can be treated with copper or Bocksin. In large amounts, the wine smells like a housefull of fart, and it has to be dumped out. You'll occasionally run across bottles of wine that have a wee hint of it, which can be gotten rid of with decanting and airing, or in extremis, a handful of sanitised pennies (the copper bonds to the H2, forming copper sulphate, removing the smell).
Now it turns out that this awful-smelling, potentially toxic gas could be of benefit to mankind. 'Man'-kind specifically: Scientists discover H2S can act like Viagara.
High concentrations of hydrogen sulfide are toxic, but recent studies have shown that smaller quantities play an important role in the body. Our cells produce hydrogen sulfide from the amino acid L-cysteine, thanks to help from two enzymes, cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) and cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE). The gas seems to serve as a neurotransmitter, promoting blood vessel relaxation and hormone secretion.
. . . creating and sustaining (erections) depends on a delicate balance between relaxation and contraction of blood vessels in the penis's corpus cavernosum, a spongelike tissue. Hydrogen sulfide is known to be involved in erection in mice, and pharmacologist Giuseppe Cirino of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy decided to investigate the issue in humans. They found that not only does the tissue harbor CBS and CSE, but CSE is also present in the smooth muscle cells and peripheral nerves that control erection.
Before you run off to buy some eggs past their best-before date, or go off for a sniff of your carboys, keep in mind a couple of things: the dosage that's effective in human tissue is toxic to the rest of the body. Quelle dommage, it's like a replay of Macbeth's porter scene with MacDuff. When asked what drink provokes, the Porter replies:
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes
the desire, but it takes away the performance.
Still, there's hope for H2S in the future. It turns out that small doses of it can send human beings into a state of almost suspended animation, which could have huge implications for people suffering massive trauma, or even open-heart surgery: if you're suspended, it's a snap to do complex surgery without worrying about the patient going into shock or going hypovolemic.
Science. It's like it can explain everything.
| Posted by Tim AT 10:34PM | 0 Comments |  |
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