AMMONIUM HYPOPHOSPHITE OMITTED FROM N. N. R.

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

Ammonium hypo­phosphite was admitted to New and Non­official Remedies in 1908 as a preliminary step in the consideration of a preparation containing it—“Gardner’s Syrup of Ammonium Hypo­phosphite”—because the Council standardizes unofficial products before considering preparations or mixtures of these.

The therapeutic use of hypo­phosphites being irrational (see, “The Hypo­phosphite Fallacy,” Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, The Journal, Sept. 2, 1916, p. 760), the salt, ammonium hypo­phosphite, deserves continued recognition only on condition that this salt of ammonium is superior to other salts from which may be obtained the effect of the ammonium radical. It has been claimed that ammonium hypo­phosphite has a less objectionable taste than other ammonium salts used for similar purposes. This claim would merit serious consideration if in addition to being less objectionable to the taste, the effects of ammonium hypo­phosphite were equal to or more desirable than the official ammonium salts. There is no evidence that this condition is met by the hypo­phosphite salt.

Ammonium hypo­phosphite has long been known, yet it is not official in the Austrian, Belgian, British, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Swedish, Swiss or United States Pharmacopeias. Neither is it mentioned in the leading textbooks on materia medica, pharmacology or therapeutics. In short it appears to be an instance of an obscure and superfluous salt selected for proprietary exploitation.

Since the continued recognition of ammonium hypo­phosphite would tend to perpetuate the hypo­phosphite fallacy, and because there is no evidence supporting its advantage as a means of securing the effect of ammonium salts the Council directed its omission from New and Non­official Remedies.—(From Reports of Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, 1916, p. 51.)