Today I had headache - perfect condition for an experiment on myself. Instead of taking Ibuprofen the normal way, I dissolved it in Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO).

Ibuprofen is practically insoluble in water, but very soluble in most organic solvents like ethanol, acetone or dichloromethane. DMSO is an important solvent and because it increases the rate of absorption of some compounds through organic tissues, including skin, it is used in some transdermal drug delivery systems.

I used a 400 mg Ibuprofen pill and weighted it firstly: 650 mg, means 250 mg other ingredients like starch, titanium and silicon dioxide.I pestled the pill and added 10 ml warm pure ethanol to dissolve the Ibuprofen and filtered the still warm solution off.

Then I added 5 ml DMSO to the filtered solution and heated it up to 150° C using a lab magnetic stirrer with hot plate until I was sure all ethanol evaporated. I don't wanted to get drunken. Meanwhile my headache got worse.

Finally I filtered the hot solution again.

I sat down with a stopwatch, applied 5 drops of the DMSO/Ibuprofen solution to the back of my left hand and waited. After 2 minutes my headache was gone. It works!