Thymus gland extracts

A process for producing a thymus extract in the substantial absence of added acids and organic solvents comprising:

• comminuted defatted thymus glands;
• mixing from 400 to 600 ml. of a an aqueous solvent with each 300 grams of comminuted glands;
• maintaining the resulting mixture at an elevated temperature sufficiently to at least partially denature large protein fractions and proteolytic enzymes;
• mechanically separating the mixture, by centrifugation or equivalent means, into oils, undissolved solids, and a solution including protein substances;
• decanting to isolate the the solution,
• after the aforesaid steps forming a precipitate including the protein substances by adding a source of sulfate ions to the solution in an amount sufficient to produce a precipitate yield at least as great as a yield obtained when from 9.5 to 11 parts of saturated ammonium sulfate solution are combined with seven parts of the solvent solution at room temperature;
• separating the precipitate from supernatent liquid by centrifugation or equivalent means;
• combining the precipitate with water so that a portion of the precipitate dissolves to form an extract solution;
• dializing the extract solution to remove dissolved, low molecular weight substances from the extract solution;
• and
• purifying the extract solution by removing any undissolved precipitate from the extract solution by centrifugation or equivalent means.

A process for producing two distinct thymus extracts in the substantial absence of added acids and organic solvents comprising:

• comminuted defatted thymus glands;
• mixing the comminuted glands with water at a ratio of not more than 300 g of comminuted glands per 400 ml of water;
• maintaining the resulting mixture at an elevated temperature and for a time sufficient that large proteins and proteolytic enyzymes are at least partially denatured;
• mechanically separating the mixture, by centrifugation or equivalent means, into oils, undissolved solids, and an aqueous solution including protein substances;
• decanting to isolate the aqueous solution;
• after the aforesaid steps, forming a first precipitate including protein substances by adding source of sulfate ions to the aqueous solution in an amount sufficient to produce a precipitate yield not greater than a yield obtained when from 400 to 600 ml of distilled water are mixed with each 300 grams of comminuted glands to produce the aqueous solution and seven parts of saturated ammonium sulfate solution are combined with each seven parts of the aqueous solution at room temperature;
• separating the first precipitate from supernatant liquid by centrifugation or equivalent means;
• forming a second precipitate including protein substances by adding a source of sulfate ions to the supernatant liquid;
• separately purifying each of the precipitates by combining each precipitate with water so that portions of the precipitates are dissolved to form extract solutions;
• separately dialyzing the extract solutions to remove dissolved, low molecular weight substances from the extract solutions;
• and
• separately purifying the extract solutions by removing any undissolved precipitates from the extract solutions.