OMISSION OF COTARNIN SALTS (STYPTICIN AND STYPTOL) FROM N. N. R.
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
The Council has authorized publication of the following report.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
Salts of the base cotarnin have been used as local and systemic hemostatics. The hydrochlorid was first introduced as “Stypticin,” and is now in the pharmacopeia as cotarnin hydrochlorid (Cotarninae Hydrochloridum, U. S. P.). The phthallic acid salt of cotarnin—cotarnin phthallate—was introduced as “Styptol.” Both Stypticin and Styptol were admitted to New and Nonofficial Remedies. In 1918 the Council voted to omit Stypticin because the former American agents were no longer offering it for sale. Styptol was retained and is described in N. N. R., 1919.
As was pointed out in the description (N. N. R., 1918), the evidence for the usefulness of the cotarnin salts has been contradictory and unsatisfactory; but since the available data against the efficiency were at least equally unreliable, the Council deemed it best to retain them in N. N. R. pending a thorough investigation of the subject. This was undertaken by P. J. Hanzlik, at the suggestion of the Therapeutic Research Committee of the Council.
A reliable judgment of hemostatic efficiency can be formed only on a basis of strictly controlled conditions, which can best be furnished in the laboratory. Hanzlik repeated the principal experiments published by previous investigators, and applied a number of new or improved methods. The results (published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 10:523, 1918; 12:71, 1919) show the following:
Direct Application to Wounds.—The widely quoted results of the gynecologist K. Abel, on the footpad of cats, were found to be quite unreliable. When the experiment is properly controlled, the results are either negative or the bleeding may be increased. Quantitative experiments on wounds of the footpad of dogs showed that cotarnin invariably increased the bleeding. Equally negative or unfavorable results were obtained with wounds to the comb of roosters, and to the liver and spleen.
Direct Action on Vessels.—The results of perfusion experiments were variable, but, in general, showed a vasodilation action instead of constriction. This holds true also of the uterine vessels. The vessels in the living animal (rabbit’s ear) were also unaffected.