THE PHARMACOLOGICAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL ACTIONS OF ACRIFLAVINE

¹ From the Departments of Pharmacology and Pathology, University of Egypt, Cairo

1. Acriflavine depresses the isolated perfused heart of the toad, by direct action on the cardiac muscle.

2. In moderately dilute solution, it is without action on the smooth muscle of the blood vessels of the toad.

3. Acting directly on the smooth muscle of the isolated rabbit gut, acriflavine, in weak solution, stimulates but, in strong, depresses the pendular movements.

4. In weak solution, it has little or no action on the striated muscle of the gastrocnemius of the toad. In strong solution, however, it is strongly irritant, abolishing the response of the fibers to an electric stimulus and causing them to go into contracture.

5. In the intact animal, on intravenous injection, it lowers the systemic blood pressure of the dog, probably by direct action on the heart. There is no clear evidence as to the existence of any action on the blood vessels.

6. Given intravenously, the m.l.d. of acriflavine for both dog and rabbit is about 30 mgm. per kilogram body weight.

7. Dogs, injected intravenously at short intervals of time with acriflavine in doses of from 5 to 25 mgm. per kilogram, develop pathological changes in the liver and kidney and display evidence of extensive destruction of the erythrocytes and of derangement of the general metabolism.