Crossword clues for physostigmine
physostigmine
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Physostigmine \Phy`so*stig"mine\, n. (Chem.) An alkaloid found in the Calabar bean (the seed of Physostigma venenosum), and extracted as a white, tasteless, substance, amorphous or crystalline; -- formerly called eserine, with which it was regarded as identical.
Wiktionary
n. (context chemistry English) A parasympathomimetic, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor alkaloid of the Calabar bean, used to treat certain medical conditions.
WordNet
n. used in treatment of Alzheimer's disease and glaucoma
Wikipedia
Physostigmine (also known as eserine from éséré, the West African name for the Calabar bean) is a parasympathomimetic alkaloid, specifically, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor. It occurs naturally in the Calabar bean.
The chemical was synthesized for the first time in 1935 by Percy Lavon Julian and Josef Pikl. It is available in the U.S. under the trade names Antilirium and Isopto Eserine, and as eserine salicylate and eserine sulfate. Today, physostigmine is most commonly used for its medicinal value but before its discovery by Sir Robert Christison in 1846, it was much more prevalent as a poison. The positive medical applications of the drug were first suggested in the gold medal winning final thesis of Thomas Richard Fraser at Edinburgh University in 1862.
Usage examples of "physostigmine".
The alkaloid calabarine is, on the other hand, a stimulant of the motor and reflex functions of the cord, so that only the pure alkaloid physostigmine and not any preparation of Calabar bean itself should be used when it is desired to obtain this action.
It established the fact that death was the result of poisoning by physostigmine, and that other alkaloids of the Calabar bean were also present.
Whether administered in the form of the official lamella or by subcutaneous injection, physostigmine causes a contraction of the pupil more marked than in the case of any other known drug.
Each of these contains one-thousandth part of a grain of physostigmine sulphate, a quantity which is perfectly efficient.
The respiration is at first accelerated by a dose of physostigmine, but is afterwards slowed and ultimately arrested.
Unfortunately the antagonism between physostigmine and atropine is not perfect, and Sir Thomas Fraser has shown that in such cases there comes a time when, if the action of the two drugs be summated, death results sooner than from either alone.
Thus atropine will save life after three and a half times the fatal dose of physostigmine has been taken, but will hasten the end if four or more times the fatal dose has been ingested.
She was preparing us for John Franklin to die of physostigmine poisoning.