Curariform Activity Research Articles

Curariform Activity and Chemical Structure. II. Synthesis in the Benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline Series1

Curariform Activity and Chemical Structure. II. Synthesis in the Benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline Series¹

Interaction between Curare and the Potassium Ion at the Motor End Plate

IN a previous paper1 evidence was presented that there is a relation between the curariform activity of an onium ion and the charge density on its quaternary central atom. A consideration of this theory and of the fact that the paralysing action of curare can be reversed by a fall of temperature2 led to an investigation of the antagonism between curare and the potassium ion3.

Curariform Activity and Chemical Structure.

Curariform Activity and Chemical Structure.

Further studies on the pharmacological properties of onium salts

In an earlier paper (1931) we described a quantitative method of comparing the curariform properties of quaternary ammonium salts. We have now extended our studies to quaternary onium salts derived from phosphorus, arsenic, sulphur and iodine, and to quaternary salts of pyridine and quinoline. Our object has been to obtain fresh light on tire anomalous behaviour of tetraethylammonium salts. The rapid loss in curariform activity which attends the successive replacement of methyl groups in the cation Me 4 N by ethyl groups was studied in detail by Marshall (1914) and is clearly illustrated in fig. 1. A, which gives the time-action curves obtained by us for the series Me n Et 4-n N. The unique properties of these ethylammonium ions are in striking contrast with the quantitative equivalence of ions so varied in structure as tetramethylammonium phenylbenzyldimethylammonium and octylquinolinium (fig. 1B).