ANAHEIM, Calif., April 5 (UPI) -- U.S. chemists said they have stumbled on a bizarre source for a useful detergent: poisonous snake venom.
Originally, the chemists, from Whittier College in California, were studying venom's potential to treat heart attack and stroke, the online version of the British journal Nature reported.
Snake venom has compounds that stop blood from clotting, which the snake uses to attack its prey. The same compounds are under study for drugs to break up clots in the human body.
It occurred to the researchers that venom's properties also might be useful in soap. They isolated an active, non-toxic ingredient from the venom and applied it to white denim stained with dried blood. The enzyme removed some, but not all, of the blood. However, if the snake produce is mixed with other enzymes, it might be able to remove blood stains completely, they said.
In theory, any animal that injects venom or sucks blood could be harvested for enzymes to counter blood clotting -- including leeches, spiders and ticks.
The team is continuing to test venom's strain-removing properties to see if it works in both hot and cold water.
