THE ACTION OF ISATIDINE, PTEROPHINE, AND SCELERATINE

¹ From the Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis

1. The acute toxicity of isatidine, sceleratine, and pterophine has been determined in mice by intravenous injection. The last alkaloid is the most, and isatidine the least, toxic—sceleratine being intermediate.

2. Mice receiving lethal doses of the 3 alkaloids die in 1-5 days. Necropsies of these animals reveal liver necrosis associated with sinusoidal congestion and hemorrhage into the cords of necrotic cells. With pterophine, the necrosis is predominantly periportal; but with isatidine and sceleratine, it is chiefly central.

3. Doses far in excess of the median lethal doses of the 3 alkaloids may kill mice within a few minutes. Postmortem examination of 5 such animals following intravenous injection of isatidine shows some hydrops of the liver in 4, and pulmonary edema in 2.

4. Pterophine, when injected intravenously in cats, has a depressor action; it inhibits isolated rabbits' intestines and contracts isolated guinea pigs' uteri. Sceleratine and isatidine slightly raise blood pressure in cats following intravenous injection, and stimulate isolated guinea pigs' uteri.