A CHEMICAL extracted from a deer's sweat glands could one day provide a new treatment for athlete's foot, tooth decay and acne. The chemical, discovered in sweat glands near the hoof, inhibits the growth of a range of bacteria and fungi in the laboratory. On a deer's hoof it may help ward off infections.
William Wood of Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, discovered the substance in the black-tailed deer, which roams the western US and Canada. Wood studies how animals communicate with chemicals, and became interested in a set of sweat glands that lie close to the animals' hooves. "Nobody had really looked at these glands to see what was in there," he says.
Eventually, Wood purified an abundant chemical from the glands - a simple ketone with a long carbon chain. The chemical had no apparent effect on the deer's behaviour. But, "on a whim", Wood tested the ...
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