Purgative Effect of Some Aliphatic Alcohols

Abstract

In connection with a pharmacological study of the first 18 primary alcohols of the aliphatic series made in this laboratory in collaboration with Professor E. Emmet Reid of the Laboratory for Organic Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, an investigation was also made of the higher members of the series, most of which are solids, to ascertain whether any of these exert a laxative or purgative action. The reason for such an inquiry was the finding by Macht and Barba-Gose, while studying the pharmacology of the oil of the Ruvettus pretiosus fish, that the active principle responsible for its laxative effect was the acetate of a hexadecyl or cetyl alcohol. 1 Because of the small amount of material available and the insolubility of these higher alcohols in water and physiological saline, the writers employed a new method. 2 Briefly, it consists of the introduction through a “stomach tube” of an emulsion of finely divided animal charcoal into the stomachs of full-grown white rats, previously fed on a standard dry diet composed of wheat (25 gm.), ground maize (25 gm.), rolled oats (28 1/2 gm.), flaxseed meal (10 gm.) casein or whole milk, dried (10 gm.), sodium chloride (1 gm.), and calcium carbonate (0.5 gm.). An hour after the introduction of such an emulsion, the animal is quickly killed and the entire gastrointestinal tract is excised and stretched out on the operating table. The distance traversed by the black emulsion in a given time, easily ascertained by examination of the intestines, is measured in centimeters. Series of such experiments with a normal emulsion give consistent readings which are expressed in percentages of the total length of the intestinal tract. Other emulsions, similarly prepared, but in which 1% of the respective alcohols had been incorporated, are given other rats in the same way; and the distance traversed by the emulsion in one hour is also ascertained in each instance.