FURTHER STUDIES ON THE ABSORPTION OF MERCURIAL DIURETICS AS INFLUENCED BY THEOPHYLLINE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES

When Mercupurin ’ was introduced in 1927, it was unique among mercurial diuretics in that in addition to a mercurial which is quite similar in chemical structure to Salyrgan and Neptal, it contains the xanthine diuretic, theophylline. The combination seems to be amply justified by the reports which have appeared from time to time of its superiority over the older drugs in regard to diuretic efficiency. (1) Furthermore, DeGraff and Batterman (2) investigated the influence of theophylline on the local toxicity of mercurial diuretics after intradermal injec-tions in rabbits, and found that the local reaction of all the diuretics of similar structure to Mercupurin was greatly dimin-ished. In a previous paper (3) the effect of theophylline upon the absorption of Mercupurin and Salyrgan from the site of intramuscular injection was evaluated quantitatively. It was demonstrated that the rate and completeness of absorption is decidedly increased, preventing the formation of local depots of mercury and probably making the drug more readily available for treatment. However, no explanation of what might be called I Mercupurin is an aqueous solution which is 10 per cent (weight/volume) with respect to the sodium salt of N(-y-oxymercuri--methoxy)propyl-d-a-camphoramic acid and 4.86 (ca. 1.3 mole equivalent) per cent with respect to an-hydrous theophylline. The basic mercurated organic acid is the same as that in Mercurin, N.N.R. Salyrgan is N(y-oxymercuri-fl-methoxy)-propylamide of o-carboxy-phenoxy-acetic acid, sodium salt and is marketed as a 10 per cent solution. The formulae and other details have been given by DeGraff, Batter-man and Lehman (3) and need not be repeated here. Since Mercupurin was introduced, Salyrgan, Neptal and Esidron have been made available as solutions containing theophylline