STUDIES ON THE PHARMACOLOGY OF THE NITRITE EFFECT OF BISMUTH SUBNITRATE

¹ From the George Herbert Jones Chemical Laboratory and the Department of Physiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago

It has thus been demonstrated that B. coli breaks down bismuth subnitrate to cause liberation of considerable amounts of nitrite. The yield of nitrite depends upon the number of bacteria, the hydrogen ion concentration of the medium, the amount of nitrate available within limits, and, of course, the temperature of incubation. The detectable nitrite content in normal blood is quite constant and very minute. Following the administration of bismuth subnitrate by mouth, the nitrite content of the blood is increased by three or four times the normal concentration. This increase in nitrite concentration is associated with a fall in the arterial tension. The nitrite content of the blood is likewise increased by sodium nitrite taken by mouth. The increase in concentration is of the same order of magnitude. Reduction of the arterial tension does not invariably follow taking bismuth subnitrate by mouth, but in such instances there is no increase in the nitrite content of the blood.

Thus a parallelism between the nitrite content of the blood and the arterial tension has been shown. The experimental evidence confirms the clinical impression that following the oral administration of bismuth subnitrate, small amounts of nitrite are slowly and continuously absorbed from the bowel.

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