THE THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF THE GLYCEROPHOSPHATES

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

The Council has adopted the following report and authorized its publication.

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

Glycero­phosphates are the salts of glycero­phosphoric acid, H2[C3H5(OH)2]PO4. This acid is produced by the interaction of glycerin and phosphoric acid. In general, only sodium glycero­phosphate, Na2[C3H5(OH)2]PO4 +51⁄2H2O, and calcium glycero­phosphate, Ca[C3H5(OH)2]PO4 +H2O, are used in medicine, though the glycero­phosphates of lithium, potassium, manganese, magnesium, iron, quinin and strychnin are claimed as constituents of proprietary preparations. At a time when certain disorders were assumed to be due to a deficiency of phosphorus in the nerve structure in the body, glycero­phosphates were introduced as “nerve foods” and “tonics” on the theory that they would be assimilated more readily than hypo­phosphites or ordinary phosphates. What led to this assumption was the fact that the lecithins, which form a part of the nerve structure, were known to contain the glycero­phosphate radical in the molecule. The belief that inorganic phosphates cannot supply the body’s need of phosphorus is implied or expressed in most of the “literature” devoted to proprietary phosphorus preparations.

Thus, Schering and Glatz quote G. Meillière as saying that “the organism is incapable of assimilating inorganic forms of phosphorus.”

Again, when exploiters of glycero­phosphates admit that the body can synthesize its phosphorus compounds from inorganic phosphates, they attempt to counterbalance the admission by contending that the use of organic compounds “spares” the system the necessity of making such synthesis. This assumption rests on the theory that the organic phosphorus compounds are absorbed and stored as such.

This theory is contradicted by evidence which has been presented[97] that the organic phosphorus compounds are split up into inorganic phosphates before absorption.

The Council requested E. K. Marshall, Jr., to review the evidence for and against the therapeutic value of organic phosphorus compounds. Marshall’s study[98] brings out the following points: