THE PHARMACOLOGY OF CERTAIN FURFURYL AND TETRA- HYDRO-FURFURYL AMMONIUM IODIDES’2

Numerous investigators have utilized quaternary ammonium salts having a parasympathomimetic action in studies designed to correlate physiological activity with chemical structure. Excellent reviews on these compounds have been published by Kulz (1) Gasser (2) and Ing (3). A number of quaternary ammonium compounds have been made avail-able3 to us for pharmacological study and the present report deals with experi-ments carried out on some of the more closely related members of this group. These substances may be looked upon as furfuryl and tetrahydro-furfuryl derivatives of Me4N. The first member of the furfuryl series (table 1) may be considered as a compound in which one hydrogen of a methyl group of Me4N has been replaced by furane. Other members of this series in addition to having one hydrogen of a methyl group replaced by furane have one hydrogen of a second methyl group replaced by an aliphatic hydrocarbon. The length of this substituent group increases as the series is ascended. The abbreviations listed in table 1 will be used throughout the text instead of chemical names. The first two members of a corresponding tetrahydro-furfuryl series (T.F.T.M. and T.F.D.M.E.) also are included in the present studies. With the exception of the first member of the furfuryl series, which has been found to be a typical parasympathomimetic agent by one of us (4), these compounds have not been subjected to a pharmacological study. With these, and other substances being investigated, it is believed that data on relative intensity of action on different structures as influenced by various chemical groups may be obtained. CIRCULATION Experiments on 110 dogs and cats anesthetized with ether or nembutal, have been carried out to secure information on the furfuryl ammonium compounds. All intravenous injections were made into a femoral vein an