With zinc acetate, she said, her group actively sought a company to sell the product as a drug.

Zinc acetate has been used in lozenges for treating the common cold.

It is unclear whether these people are best treated with penicillamine or zinc acetate.

But patients, their advocates and companies that try to sell drugs like zinc acetate say it is not that simple.

Acid is added and the hydrogen sulphide absorbed in zinc acetate.

Zinc acetate can also be used to treat zinc deficiencies.

However, no clinical trials have been conducted yet on zinc acetate, Mr. Eby said.

For products containing zinc acetate or sodium bicarbonate:

"Zinc acetate preparation, as used in our study, was significantly effective in decreasing the (average) duration of cold symptoms," the authors conclude.

In chewing gum, zinc acetate is a breath freshener and, when combined with hexetidine, a plaque inhibitor.

However, controlled trials with lozenges composed of zinc acetate have found the greatest effect on the duration of colds.

Besides consuming more liquids, Rakel might take 20 to 30 milligrams of zinc acetate lozenges twice a day to improve his immunity.

Preparations include zinc oxide, zinc acetate, and zinc gluconate.

Pooling the results of three high dose zinc acetate trials indicates an average 42% reduction in the duration of colds (see figure).

The participants took one zinc acetate lozenge containing 13.3 milligrams of zinc or an inactive "placebo" every 2 to 3 hours while awake.

This loss of immunoreactivity in serum and urine can be prevented by the addition of 20 mM zinc acetate or by boiling for 10 minutes.

Zinc lozenges (frequently zinc acetate or zinc gluconate) have been proposed as a treatment for the common cold.

Zinc acetates are prepared by the action of acetic acid on zinc carbonate or zinc metal.

Examples of acetate complexes include chromium(II) acetate and basic zinc acetate.

The second ingredient in the Population Council's microbicide, zinc acetate, is meant to prevent herpes although this was not tested in this particular study.

In zinc acetate dihydrate the zinc is octahedral, wherein both acetate groups are bidentate.

Uranyl zinc acetate has been used as a catalyst for converting dimethyl carbonate into toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI).

Dr. Prasad said his studies have used zinc acetate lozenges from ColdCure.com that contained about 13 milligrams of zinc.

Zinc acetate is not currently sold for nutritional purposes, according to Mr. Eby, who says that it is mainly used in dental amalgams.

Zinc carboxylates, e.g. basic zinc acetate, adopt complex formulas, and are not simply dicarboxylates of zinc.