Raise your glass to sulphur cure!

摘要

Microbes in a cow's rumen can synthesise all the amino-acids needed provided there is an adequate source of sulphur in the diet, but overdo it and you are in trouble. Vet John Shaw fills us in on the vital role this element plays. Sulphur was designated an essential nutrient in the 1930s when it was discovered that each molecule of methionine (an essential amino-acid) contains one atom of sulphur. Subsequent investigations found that proteins are made of chains of amino-acids twisted and folded intointricate shapes. Sulphide bonds between sulphur-containing amino-acids in the chains are responsible for holding the proteins together.