DMSO is extremely common in the earth's atmosphere.  In fact, click here for the full story, or read the next paragraph:

Our research focuses on elucidating the kinetics and reaction mechanisms that control the atmospheric oxidation of dimethylsulfide (CH₃SCH₃, DMS), the most ubiquitous naturally-occurring sulfur compound in the atmosphere, and its intermediate oxidation products dimethylsulfoxide (CH₃S(O)CH₃, DMSO) and methanesulfinic acid (CH₃S(O)OH, MSIA).

DMSO is produced naturally by the processes of nature -- somewhere between 20 and 60 billion pounds of DMSO are produced by nature every year.  [source] While this is very true, it is absolutely false for anyone to claim that they are producing MSM, somehow, by tapping into these natural sources of the only raw material which is ever used to make MSM -- that is DMSO.

For instance, sea water contains as much as 2 mg of gold for every ton of sea water.

The point of that linked page is to provide authentic data about the amount of gold contained in sea water.  Per the data on that page, there is a tremendous amount of gold in sea water, but it is impractical to extract it.  One purpose for including this data in this link is to show the foolishness of a claim that "DMSO" or "MSM" can be "extracted" from the atmosphere, or even from plants.  Indeed, MSM exists within the sea, within the atmosphere, and within plants.  But, taking a bunch of plants, or sea water, or air, and trying to simply extract the MSM from such a source would be as foolish as trying to extract gold from the sea water.

It would cost many millions of dollars to extract one million dollars' worth of gold from sea water.  The same logic applies to extracting DMSO (or MSM) from trees or plants -- unless there is an additional benefit such as the manufacture of paper.

MSM is made by processing something called "DMSO."

DMSO is made by processing the waste product of paper making -- it is NEVER made by simply processing trees or any other form of plant life, for the sole purpose of extracting DMSO.  It COULD be, just as sea water could be used for the sole purpose of extracting gold. 

No, the DMSO is extracted from the waste product of paper making -- and it is the PAPER MAKING that allows the whole process to be practical.  The making of paper is wide-spread all over the planet.  PAPER is one of the most basic of commercial products.  There are no secrets on the making of paper.

You start with trees, not because they are the only source of the fibers, but because they are the cheapest.  Some paper is made from cotton, for instance.  But, wood from trees accounts for the great bulk of all paper manufacture.

As paper is made, the paper is made of the fibers of wood. But, as trees grow, the fibers of wood are stuck together, in the living tree, by a substance called "lignin."  Lignin is like a glue that holds the fibers together.

The wood could not be made into paper if all the fibers are still stuck together -- so papermaking must include some process by which the lignin is removed, allowing the wood fibers to be managed into flat paper, etc.

Lignin is removed with something called "pulping chemicals."  When these chemicals are soaked in a vat with wood chips, the lignin dissolves and the wood fibers can then be strained away (removed) from the mass.  Generally about 50% of the stuff in the vat would be the wood fibers, ready for making into paper, and 50% would be the liquid residue, the waste product, of the original "pulping chemicals" and the lignin that has now been dissolved.

That first liquid is called "black liquor" but it quickly and easily further refined into DMSO, and that into MSM.

There is no mystery about the origin of MSM -- it is all made in this exact same way.

Anyone who claims that "his" MSM is manufactured from "organic trees" is deceiving you -- trying to get you to believe that there are no "chemicals" involved.  That person is a liar.

The very word "natural" when used in the vitamin industry is a fraud.  Click here for my detailed expose of the use of the word "natural" when applied to vitamins.

Some liar, selling MSM, will then take up much space to describe the "natural" sulfur cycle, and how MSM is created by the plankton in the ocean, and moves out of the ocean into the atmosphere, and falls with the rain. What a story -- it is true, but extremely misleading.

Gold occurs in sea water to the extent of 0.1 to 2 mg/ton, depending on the location where the sample is taken. As yet, no method has been found for recovering gold from sea water profitably.   [Source]

There is only one manufacturer of DMSO in the United States -- there are many others around the world.      There has almost always been an oversupply of DMSO because there is so much paper being made around the world, and every time there is paper being made, there is a "waste product" that COULD be used to make DMSO -- so there are some very large and clever companies looking for ways to promote the use of DMSO.

No, DMSO must be MANUFACTURED from the waste products of paper making -- it would be completely foolish to somehow "capture" the DMSO that exists in the atmosphere, or in plants and foods -- just much to expensive.

When paper is made, usually it is trees that are the raw material for making the paper.

There are two general ways by which wood can be converted to paper.

If you are making cheap paper, like that used for printing newspapers, all you have to do is cut up the wood into small pieces and then process it into paper.  Your local newspaper is printed on "newsprint."  After a few years of storage, particularly in sunlight, it is greatly degraded.  It is the "lignin" that makes this paper cheap, weak, and short-lived.

But, most of the paper manufactured in the world is a higher quality, so there must be a process of separating the "wood fibers" from the "glue" that holds these fibers together in the tree.  That "glue" is called "lignin."  High quality paper must be made with LONG fibers of wood.  Newsprint is made with little short pieces of wood (that is why it is so cheap and so weak).

Plant (and tree) cell wall material is composed of three important constituents: cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose. Lignin is particularly difficult to biodegrade, and reduces the bioavailability of the other cell wall constituents. [Source]

High quality paper is made with these long fibers of wood (cellulose) to make the paper stronger.  But, that lignin gets in the way -- it keeps the long fibers stuck together so it can't be used to make fine paper.  There must be some way to remove the lignin if you want to make very high quality paper, such as used for magazines and books.  Fine papers contain only 2% of the amount of lignin found in newsprint.

So, the paper manufacturers use a couple different chemicals to SOAK the wood in -- chemicals that dissolve the lignin, and allow the wood fibers to become UNSTUCK from one another.  When that soaking process is finished, the resulting mass is about 55% wood and 45% a liquid which is called "Black Liquor."

I'll bet you've not heard much about "Black Liquor" as the source of MSM?

While the wooden fibers released from the lignin are valuable to make paper with, the lignin, itself, is a rich treasure of interesting chemicals -- particularly sulfur.  Thus lignin is the source of the sulfur which you know as MSM -- organic sulfur.

Health Related Uses of DMSO

DMSO is an industrial solvent widely used all over planet earth -- sold by the tanker full.  It comes into popular awareness because athletes often use this liquid (DMSO is always a liquid, whereas MSM is always a solid -- (at room temperatures).

Athletes use DMSO to rub on sore muscles and bones -- it brings instant relief in many situations.  It is widely used even though you cannot usually buy it in any "health food store."  Here is one famous doctor commenting on the value of DMSO (and also MSM).

An amazing property of DMSO is that you can put a small amount of this liquid on the sole of your foot and then taste it in your mouth almost immediately -- in less than one second.  It has the ability to penetrate through skin and get carried in the blood stream throughout the entire body.

If you take the liquid DMSO and raise the temperature to its boiling point, the molecules of DMSO will, each, acquire one additional atom of oxygen, making it into DMSO₂ .  The "2" in that formula indicates that there are TWO atoms of oxygen, whereas DMSO (with no "2" after the "O" indicates only ONE atom of oxygen.

MSM is not restricted in any area, while DMSO cannot be sold legally for health purposes.

MSM has many of the same characteristics of DMSO, but it does not provide the kerosene taste that DMSO creates in the mouth from any use of it.

However, MSM is probably just as good at "penetrating" through the skin when applied externally, and is just as good at carrying other materials along with it as does DMSO.  Many drugs are designed to be administered through the skin -- the term is "trans-dermal."  DMSO (or MSM) can be combined with many other substances and the DMSO (or MSM) will CARRY that substance through the skin.  Click here to review about 50 US Patents on the concept of "transdermal."

So, you could say that MSM is "made" from trees, and that would be true, but deceptive.  Those who say that are afraid that the "waste" product nature of DMSO would turn people off.

I think that lies are a bigger turnoff!

So, here is the truth of the source of MSM.

DMSO is shipped all over the planet for various solvent uses -- and my MSM factory in India purchases this bulk, liquid DMSO for the sole raw material needed to make MSM.

The DMSO is simply boiled!  That's it!

Now, if there are impurities in the DMSO, the boiling process must be done carefully -- those impurities that "boil" at lower temperatures than the pure DMSO will be driven off first.

Then, the DMSO vaporizes, absorbs the extra oxygen, cools, and as it cools it is now a solid -- it cools into a crystal.  If there are other impurities that boil at higher temperatures than the actual pure DMSO, the manufacturing process must be careful to not let the temperature get too high -- where these impurities might also vaporize and mix with the crystallizing MSM.

While the only two US manufacturers refuse to submit their MSM to an independent testing lab, we do.  The world's largest independent testing lab tests our MSM as 99.5% pure MSM and 0.5% moisture.

So, our MSM is pure, and it comes, all of it, from DMSO.  Where do the trees grow?

It would be impossible to know that -- since DMSO is a "bulk commodity" sold on the basis of purity and price -- without regard to the location of the trees.

A great deal of research has been done on DMSO, but MSM has arrived more recently on the scene.  Almost every claim that has been made for the health benefits from DMSO can be made for MSM -- and MSM has the added benefit of being a solid (powder) rather than a liquid, and doesn't cause the kerosene taste or the terrible smell that DMSO causes.

The text below is found HERE.

DMSO Penetrates Membranes and Eases Pain

The first quality that struck Dr. Jacob about the drug was its ability to pass through membranes, an ability that has been verified by numerous subsequent researchers.  DMSO's ability to do this varies proportionally with its strength--up to a 90 percent solution. From 70 percent to 90 percent has been found to be the most effective strength across the skin, and, oddly, performance drops with concentrations higher than 90 percent. Lower concentrations are sufficient to cross other membranes. Thus, 15 percent DMSO will easily penetrate the bladder.

In addition, DMSO can carry other drugs with it across membranes. It is more successful ferrying some drugs, such as morphine sulfate, penicillin, steroids, and cortisone, than others, such as insulin. What it will carry depends on the molecular weight, shape, and electrochemistry of the molecules. This property would enable DMSO to act as a new drug delivery system that would lower the risk of infection occurring whenever skin is penetrated.

DMSO perhaps has been used most widely as a topical analgesic, in a 70 percent DMSO, 30 percent water solution. Laboratory studies suggest that DMSO cuts pain by blocking peripheral nerve C fibers. Several clinical trials have demonstrated its effectiveness, although in one trial, no benefit was found. Burns, cuts, and sprains have been treated with DMSO. Relief is reported to be almost immediate, lasting up to 6 hours. A number of sports teams and Olympic athletes have used DMSO, although some have since moved on to other treatment modalities. When administration ceases, so do the effects of the drug.

Dr. Jacob said at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health in 1980, "DMSO is one of the few agents in which effectiveness can be demonstrated before the eyes of the observers....If we have patients appear before the Committee with edematous sprained ankles, the application of DMSO would be followed by objective diminution of swelling within an hour. No other therapeutic modality will do this."

Chronic pain patients often have to apply the substance for 6 weeks before a change occurs, but many report relief to a degree they had not been able to obtain from any other source.

DMSO and Inflammation

DMSO reduces inflammation by several mechanisms. It is an antioxidant, a scavenger of the free radicals that gather at the site of injury. This capability has been observed in experiments with laboratory animals and in 150 ulcerative colitis patients in a double-blinded randomized study in Baghdad, Iraq. DMSO also stabilizes membranes and slows or stops leakage from injured cells.

At the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1978, 213 patients with inflammatory genitourinary disorders were studied. Researchers concluded that DMSO brought significant relief to the majority of patients. They recommended the drug for all inflammatory conditions not caused by infection or tumor in which symptoms were severe or patients failed to respond to conventional therapy.

Stephen Edelson, MD, F.A.A.F.P., F.A.A.E.M., who practices medicine at the Environmental and Preventive Health Center of Atlanta, has used DMSO extensively for 4 years. "We use it intravenously as well as locally," he says. "We use it for all sorts of inflammatory conditions, from people with rheumatoid arthritis to people with chronic low back inflammatory-type symptoms, silicon immune toxicity syndromes, any kind of autoimmune process.

"DMSO is not a cure," he continues. "It is a symptomatic approach used while you try to figure out why the individual has the process going on. When patients come in with rheumatoid arthritis, we put them on IV DMSO, maybe three times a week, while we are evaluating the causes of the disease, and it is amazing how free they get. It really is a dramatic treatment."

As for side effects, Dr. Edelson says: "Occasionally, a patient will develop a headache from it, when used intravenously--and it is dose related." He continues: "If you give a large dose, [the patient] will get a headache. And we use large doses. I have used as much as 30ÝmlÝIV over a couple of hours. The odor is a problem. Some men have to move out of the room [shared] with their wives and into separate bedrooms. That is basically the only problem."

DMSO was the first nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory discovered since aspirin. Mr. Bristol believes that it was that discovery that spurred pharmaceutical companies on to the development on other varieties of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories. "Pharmaceutical companies were saying that if DMSO can do this, so can other compounds," says Mr. Bristol. "The shame is that DMSO is less toxic and has less int he way of side effects than any of them."

Collagen and Scleroderma

Scleroderma is a rare, disabling, and sometimes fatal disease, resulting form an abnormal buildup of collagen in the body. The body swells, the skin--particularly on hands and face--becomes dense and leathery, and calcium deposits in joints cause difficulty of movement. Fatigue and difficulty in breathing may ensue. Amputation of affected digits may be necessary. The cause of scleroderma is unknown, and, until DMSO arrived, there was no known effective treatment.

Arthur Scherbel, MD, of the department of rheumatic diseases and pathology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, conducted a study using DMSO with 42 scleroderma patients who had already exhausted all other possible therapies without relief. Dr. Scherbel and his coworkers concluded 26 of the 42 showed good or excellent improvement. Histotoxic changes were observed together with healing of ischemic ulcers on fingertips, relief from pain and stiffness, and an increase in strength. The investigators noted, "It should be emphasized that these have never been observed with any other mode of therapy." Researchers in other studies have since come to similar conclusions.

Does DMSO Help Arthritis?

It was inevitable that DMSO, with its pain-relieving, collagen-softening, and anti-inflammatory characteristics, would be employed against arthritis, and its use has been linked to arthritis as much as to any condition. Yet the FDA has never given approval for this indication and has, in fact, turned down three Investigational New Drug (IND) applications to conduct extensive clinical trials.

Moreover, its use for arthritis remains controversial. Robert Bennett, MD, F.R.C.P., F.A.C.R., F.A.C.P., professor of medicine and chief, division of arthritis and rheumatic disease at Oregon Health Sciences University (Dr. Jacob's university), says other drugs work better. Dava Sobel and Arthur Klein conducted their own informal study of 47 arthritis patients using DMSO in preparation for writing their book, Arthritis: What Works, and came to the same conclusion.

Yet laboratory studies have indicated that DMSO's capacity as a free-radical scavenger suggests an important role for it in arthritis. The Committee of Clinical Drug Trials of the Japanese Rheumatism Association conducted a trial with 318 patients at several clinics using 90 percent DMSO and concluded that DMSO relieved joint pain and increased range of joint motion and grip strength, although performing better in more recent cases of the disease. It is employed widely in the former Soviet Union for all the different types of arthritis, as it is in other countries around the world.

Dr. Jacob remains convinced that it can play a significant role in the treatment of arthritis. "You talk to veterinarians associated with any race track, and you'll find there's hardly an animal there that hasn't been treated with DMSO. No veterinarian is going to give his patient something that does not work. There's no placebo effect on a horse."

DMSO and Central Nervous System Trauma

Since 1971, Dr. de la Torre, then at the University of Chicago, has experimented using DMSO with injury to the central nervous system. Working with laboratory animals, he discovered that DMSO lowered intracranial pressure faster and more effectively than any other drug. DMSO also stabilized blood pressure, improved respiration, and increased urine output by five times and increased blood flow through the spinal cord to areas of injury. Since then, DMSO has been employed with human patients suffering severe head trauma, initially those whose intracranial pressure remained high despite the administration of mannitol, steroids, and barbiturates. In humans, as well as animals, it has proven the first drug to significantly lower intracranial pressure, the number one problem with severe head trauma.

"We believe that DMSO may be a very good product for stroke," says Dr. de la Torre, "and that is a devastating illness which affects many more people than head injury. We have done some preliminary clinical trials, and there's a lot of animal data showing that it is a very good agent in dissolving clots."

Other Possible Applications for DMSO

Many other uses for DMSO have been hypothesized from its known qualities hand have been tested in the laboratory or in small clinical trials. Mr. Bristol speaks with frustration about important findings that have never been followed up on because of the difficulty in finding funding and because "to have on your resume these days that you've worked on DMSO is the kiss of death." It is simply too controversial. A sampling of some other possible applications for this drug follows.

DMSO as long been used to promote healing. People who have it on hand often use it for minor cuts and burns and report that recovery is speedy. Several studies have documented DMSO use with soft tissue damage, local tissue death, skin ulcers, and burns.

In relation to cancer, several properties of DMSO have gained attention. In one study with rats, DMSO was found to delay the spread of one cancer and prolong survival rates with another. In other studies, it has been found to protect noncancer cells while potentiating the chemotherapeutic agent.

Much has been written recently about the worldwide crisis in antibiotic resistance among bacteria (see Alternative & Complementary Therapies, Volume 2, Number 3, 1996, pages 140-144) Here, too, DMSO may be able to play a role. Researcher as early as 1975 discovered that it could break down the resistance certain bacteria have developed.

In addition to its ability to lower intracranial pressure following closed head injury, Dr. de la Torre's work suggests that the drug may actually have the ability to prevent paralysis, given its ability to speedily clean out cellular debris and stop the inflammation that prevents blood from reaching muscle, leading to the death of muscle tissue.

With its great antioxidant powers, DMSO could be used to mitigate some of the effects of aging, but little work has been done to investigate this possibility. Toxic shock, radiation sickness, and septicemia have all been postulated as responsive to DMSO, as have other conditions too numerous to mention here.

DMSO in the Future

Will DMSO ever sit on the shelves of pharmacies in this country as a legal prescriptive for many of the conditions it may be able to address? Will the studies we need to discover when this drug is most appropriate ever be done? Given the difficulties the drug has run into so far and the recent development of new drugs that perform some of the same functions, Mr. Bristol is doubtful. Others, however, such as Dr. Jacob and Dr. de la Torre, see the FDA approval of DMSO for interstitial cystitis and the more recent FDA go-ahead for DMSO trials with closed head injury as new indications of hope. The cystitis approval means that physicians may use it at their discretion for other uses, giving DMSO a new legitimacy.

Dr. Jacob continues to believe that DMSO should not even be called a drug but is more correctly a new therapeutic principle, with an effect on medicine that will be profound in many areas. Whether that is true cannot be known without extensive a publicly reported trials, which are dependent on the willingness of researchers to undertake rigorous studies in this still-unfashionable tack and of pharmaceutical companies and other investors to back them up. That this is a live issue is proved by the difficulty the investigators with approval to test DMSO for closed head injury clinically are having finding funds to conduct the trials.

In 1980, testifying before the Select Committee on Agin of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Scherbel said, "The controversy that exists over the clinical effectiveness of DMSO is not well-founded--clinical effectiveness may be variable in different patients. If toxicity is consistently minimal, the drug should not be restricted from practice. The clinical effectiveness of DMSO can be decided with complete satisfaction if the drug is made available to the practicing physician. The number of patient complaints about pain and the number of phone calls to the doctor's office will decide quickly whether or not the drug is effective."

It may be premature to call for the full rehabilitation of DMSO, but it is time to call for a full investigation of its true range of capabilities.

Click Here For References

Normally MSM is manufactured by an oxidative reaction of DMSO - which is "Dimethyl Sulfoxide".

Despite what anyone may tell you, all MSM is manufactured in the same way.  You take DMSO and boil it.  As it heats up the DMSO absorbs extra oxygen from the air and each molecule of DMSO gets one extra atom of oxygen -- it can then be called DMSO2, or, same thing, MSM.

There are many different types of patents in existence.  The most valuable patent is called a "process patent."

A "process patent" means that the US Patent Office gives you the exclusive rights to use some particular process.  There is no process patent issued for the process of making MSM.

There is another type of patent -- referred to as a "Use Patent."  This type of patent has practically no commercial value.

In the field of MSM there is one person who has obtained many "use patents."

ALL THE PATENTS issued, of any type, for MSM, have been located on my web site for more than two years.

The primary address for these patents is at:

http://www.oralchelation.com/methyl/patent/patent.htm 

Another page, different web site, also has all the patents:

http://www.bulkmsm.com/research/patents/patent1.html 

To my knowledge no other web site in the world provides actual copies of all these patents.

That page not only has referenced to EVERY patent issued about MSM, but also has a link for that patent on a separate page on my web site, AND another link, for every patent, to the U. S. Patent Office, where you can also view that actual patent.  Thus, anyone can check MY web site, and from there go to the U. S. Patent Office to verify that what I have stated on my page is the truth about these patents.

As you look over these patents, you'll find one, for instance, relates to the use of MSM to stop someone from snoring!

That patent is found on this page:  http://www.oralchelation.com/methyl/patent/patent7.htm 

The actual summary language of that patent is as shown below:

A method of pharmaceutically managing snoring is provided by the instillation intranasally of a solution containing 1-20% methylsulfonylmethane by weight dissolved in water so as to saturate the nasal mucous membranes. Preferably, the solution has between 10%-16% by weight methylsulfonylmethane. The solution may be buffered, and/or a mild analgesic may be included. The method prefers that instillation occur as close to the sleep event as possible, and it should be at least within one hour before a person retires for sleep. The solution may be introduced by spray or drop-wise, and a product packaging the solution in a suitable container is described.

What a "USE PATENT" allows the inventor is to be the ONLY person who can claim that the product has this use.

The USE PATENT does not give the patent-holder any exclusive rights to manufacture or sell MSM, but this one gives him the exclusive right to make a public claim, such as, "My MSM can help you stop snoring!"

Here is the web address for one of the two manufacturers of MSM in the US, Carolwood:  http://www.msm.com/ 

On that web site there is a link to "where does MSM come from."  This data is terribly misleading.  I quote it exactly below:

The cycle of MSM begins in the ocean where microscopic plants called plankton release sulfur compounds. These salts are transformed in the ocean water into the very volatile compound dimethyl sulfide (DMS) which escapes from the ocean as a gas. DMS rises into the upper atmosphere, and in the presence of ozone and high-energy ultraviolet light, is converted into its cousins, dimethyl sulfide (DMSO) and MSM. Unlike the DMS, both DMSO and MSM are very soluble in water, and they return to earth in the form of rain. On earth, plants take MSM into their root systems and concentrate it. MSM and the sulfur it contains is incorporated into the plants' structure. Through the plants' metabolism, MSM, along with other sulfur compounds it has spawned, is ultimately mineralized and transported back to the sea.

The idea that MSM is manufactured from the waste product of the paper industry seems like a bad image, so Carolwood claims, as you can read above, that MSM and DMSO are somehow found naturally in plants. While that is true, there is no possible way to extract the MSM or DMSO from plants, other than the simple process of producing paper by pouring sulfuric acid on chips of wood.  

So, we see that Carolwood is attempting to deceive the public by implying that their MSM is "natural."  Click here for their actual web description.

Remember that all MSM is made in exactly the same way -- from DMSO -- the waste product of paper-making.

The two US manufacturers have attempted to mislead customers further by using special names for their MSM.  Carolwood uses:

Lignisul -- and simply adds an additive to pure MSM.  The MSM sold by Vibrant Life has no additives.  Because Carolwood adds things to its MSM, it can then justify calling their MSM by the name "Lignisul MSM."

The other US Manufacturer is Cardinal, located at:  http://www.optimsm.com/

They too add stuff to their MSM, so they can imply that is somehow different from other MSM.  They call their MSM by the name of:

"OptiMSM"  

Cardinal, also, attempts to hide the paper-industry waste product nature of MSM, publishing this for the origin of MSM:

You see that this is not an outright lie, but it certainly does HIDE the true origin of MSM.

Cardinal does NOT show the patents for MSM on its web site (neither does Carolwood), but indicates that it has the patents for MSM:

Cardinal Nutrition, the sole maker of OptiMSM, is the original United States producer licensed under the R. J. Herschler domestic and foreign patents.

The truth is that the patents relating to MSM are useless for preventing anyone from making and selling MSM.  However, I am confident that this below is the true story.

The guy that got these worthless patents couldn't begin to get any money from anyone who was making MSM, or who wanted to make MSM.  So, he went into a collusive agreement to restrict competition.  Cardinal agree to pay a fee to the patent holder so that they could say that they were the ONLY company that had "the patents for MSM."

For many years they claimed that they were the ONLY company allowed to sell the "patented" MSM.   This was very misleading, but many people feared lawsuits if they sold MSM.  Understand that the patents had nothing to do with making or selling MSM -- but things like stopping snoring.

Cardinal wanted to prevent anyone else from entering the MSM market because they wanted a monopoly, so they could raise the price.

However,  Carolwood was making MSM and therefore Cardinal sued Carolwood. That lawsuit went on for many years.  I talked to several executives of Carolwood, including the son-in-law of the President.  I learned that Carolwood considered the patents worthless, but that they had spent (they claimed) millions of dollars to defend their right to sell MSM.

That lawsuit was settled, I believe, by an illegal conspiracy to restrain trade in MSM -- Cardinal allowed the patent holder to license Carolwood, in addition to Cardinal, so that the two of them could get into a price-fixing agreement, and so that they could fight the growing presence of Vibrant Life's MSM in the US.  This lawsuit was NOT settled until after Vibrant Life MSM became the lowest priced MSM on the web.

Yes, indeed, the MSM sold by Vibrant Life is manufactured in India, and the largest independent testing lab in the world, SGS, tests this MSM.  The other two companies claim that their MSM is tested in independent labs, but they never give the names of those labs, or a copy of the certificate of purity on their web sites:

Vibrant Life has tests conducted by SGS.  You will find a great deal of information about this largest testing lab in the world, at:  http://www.oralchelation.com/methyl/technical/lab2.htm 

The actual certificate of purity for Vibrant Life MSM is located at:  http://www.oralchelation.com/methyl/technical/lab6.htm 

There is much more I could tell you, but the basic truth here is that Cardinal and Carolwood are frightened to death that Vibrant Life will take away the entire market for MSM.

They both use lawyers like guerillas making false claims about their "patents" and their purity.

Cardinal, for instance, claims that their MSM is 99.9% pure. What they don't tell you is that the 0.1% "impurity" is only moisture.  The same is true for Vibrant Life MSM.  We have a purity of 99.5% with 0.5% moisture.  I don't think this tiny difference in the amount of moisture should ethically be used to claim that their stuff is superior.

It is not!

Here in February 2002, several tons of MSM for Vibrant Life are on a ship due to arrive later this month.  Here are a few pictures of the loading process in India.