I’ve heard about dmso for thirty years or more. My vet gave me some as an anti-inflammatory for my dog’s swollen ear. (He told me not to get it on my own skin because it’s suspected to hasten balding.) Anecdotal reports say it’s great as a pain reliever. Most articles about it say that it can’t be properly tested because of its distinctive smell (garlic?) and the taste (oysters?) that you get the minute the stuff gets in your bloodstream. I’m not sure which you taste and which you smell, and posters in past dmso-related threads apparently can’t remember, either. Anyway, couldn’t the testers mask the taste and smell by giving the subjects spicy, garlicky oysters first? I gare-on-tee I could whomp up a garlic sauce that could mask just about anything, ammatellayouwhat!
A search of Cecil’s archives turned up only two columns, and they didn’t mention testing. A search of the SDMB turned up several threads, but the ones I read didn’t mention testing, either.