[ExI] Xylomannan (was: Re: Trehalose for life-extension?)

[John Grigg]

On 9/19/10, John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> On Sep 19, 2010, at 5:31 AM, The Avantguardian wrote:
>
>> Thanks for bringing trehalose to my attention. Turns out it makes a real
>> good
>> cryopreseravtive too.
>
> I'm puzzled that there is not more interest in using xylomannan as a
> cryopreservative, it's a sugar-fatty acid complex. So far as is known only
> the Alaskan Upis beetle makes it, and that is a truly remarkable bug. It
> freezes solid at about 18 degrees F but you can continue to cool it down all
> the way to minus 100 degrees F (-73C). Then if you want to revive the insect
> you don't need all sorts of fancy Nanotechnology, you just warm it up and it
> crawls away and goes about its business as if nothing had happened.

I thought the current active ingredient in Alcor's vitrification
formula was a synthetic form of Xylomannan.  But then again I remember
there being a fish that they were also looking at carefully, where
costs were viewed as being probably lower.

The vitrification ingredients...

http://cryomedical.blogspot.com/2010/02/alcors-trade-secrets-vitrification.html

Dimethyl sulfoxide 2.855 M
Formamide 2.855 M
Ethylene glycol 2.713 M
N-methylformamide 0.508 M
3-methoxy-1,2-propanediol 0.377 M
Polyvinyl pyrrolidone K12* 2.8% w/v
X-1000 ice blocker* 1% w/v
Z-1000 ice blocker* 2% w/v
Total Molarity 9.345 M"
(May be missing one "proprietary" ingredient, but I doubt Johnson
knows what it is.)

The excellent "Depressed Metabolism" blog of Aschwin de Wolf...

http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/2008/07/08/vitrification-agents-in-cryonics-m22/

John