Never heard that name, but according to their safety data sheet [1] it is 95+ % dimethylformamide [2]. Not too different from acetone, with a additional dimethylamin group. Acetone-free nail polish remover usually contains primarily ethyl acetate [3] which is also structurally similar.
As a chemist it’s a highly polar, very high boiling point solvent that is the “go to” when you can’t find a solvent your reactants dissolve in.
Acetone is less polar, more chemically reactive and lower boiling point. It’s rarely used as a reaction solvent due to its reactivity, but it is common in crystallizations.
Both are quite non-toxic (your body makes small amounts of acetone!), but I recall a cancer risk with high exposures of DMF (the example was tannery workers who sprayed it without any safety gear and got soaked).
Wow, speaking of safety -- I just looked it up to see if Un-Cure superglue/CA debonder would be safe enough to use on hands, or would just cause the chemicals to be broken down and absorbed through the skin at a fast rate too (which I personally wouldn't want), and the initial results I see say that it's ok to use on hands. Wow again.
I sensitised my hands with a single exposure to acetone, and now even isoprop gives me painful flaky fingers for days. I wish I'd worn chemical gloves.
Acetone only dries out the top skin layers, which immediately triggers a healing response and accelerates the shed cycle. Dermatologists use acetone prior to skin surgery to speed up the recovery.
It’s extremely safe. Your body naturally creates it and you exhale and piss it out every day.
If you are having any long term health issues from exposure then this may indicate that your immune system is seriously compromised.
I am aware that acetone is created by metabolic pathways. I foolishly dunked my hands into it for several minutes. I'm confident, with hindsight, that it penetrated my epidermis in concentrations far higher than found in the body. It is a very small molecule and a very strong non-polar solvent, one which can eat cell walls.
