IF looking good is one of your obsessions, milk could be the elixir you're looking for. Australian researchers have discovered that this much-hated bovine stuff not only keeps the skin youthful, but even speeds up the healing of wounds.
The scientists are not suggesting that people should dunk themselves in milk a la Cleopatra. Instead they gleaned a few of the thousand substances from whey, a milk derivative, which they found could greatly speed up wound-healing in animals.
The key substance will soon face its next major test to see if it speeds up the healing of wounds in humans as well. If it passes that test, scientists say the extract could eventually claim a world market worth anything up to $20 billion.
Project leader Dr David Belford, from the CSIRO division of Human Nutrition, says the whey extract may eventually be included as a special healing agent in wound dressings, or as a wrinkle-remover in cosmetics although such applications are still a fair way down the track, and depend on the success of the human trials.
