Experiments on the Effect of Di-hydranol on Intestinal Protozoa of Man and Laboratory Mammals.

Abstract

Leonard and his associates (Leonard, 1 Leonard and Frobisher, 2 Hampil 3 ) have demonstrated the bactericidal properties of the acyl and alkyl derivatives of resorcinol and Ratcliffe 4 has shown that the administration of certain of these derivatives to rats not only changes the intestinal flora from a Gram-positive to a Gram-negative type but also is effective in reducing the protozoa in the cecum (Trichomonas spp., Endamoeba muris). Trichomonads in young chicks were also killed on a one per cent N-heptyl resorcinol diet fed for 5 days (Ratcliffe, 1. c.). At the suggestion of Dr. Veader Leonard the writer has made a study of the effect of di-hydranol, a homolog of hexyl resorcinol, on certain intestinal protozoa of man and mammals in New Orleans. The drug has been prepared by Sharp and Dohme of Baltimore and been placed at the writer's disposal through the courtesy of Dr. Leonard.

Structure and properties of di-hydranol. Di-hydranol (2-4-dihydroxy-phenyl n-heptane) is a yellowish crystalline product with the structural formula:

Its taste is at first slightly sweetish, but soon there develops a definite mild acrid pungency, very similar to that of the root of the Indian turnip, Arisaema atrorubens, to be followed later by a mild numbness of the tongue. The drug is only slightly soluble in water. Hampil (1. c.) found the series to which this group belongs to be more bactericidal in alkaline solutions, presumably due to their greater solubility in this medium. In concentrated crystalline form it is too irritating for the human stomach but in olive oil, in which it is highly soluble, this difficulty is entirely obviated. Almost all of the drug is excreted by the bowel; its presence in the urine of a patient taking the drug in olive oil can be detected only by the most delicate technic. Its toxicity is clinically negligible.