TOXICITY OF MENADIONE, MENADIOL AND ESTERS

¹ From the Division of Experimental Medicine of The Squibb Institute for Medical Research and the Biological Laboratories, New Brunswick, New Jersey

1. Toxicological studies were made of oily solutions of naphthoquinone, menadione, six esters of menadiol, and phytyl-menadione (vitamin K₁), and menadiol in an aqueous vehicle administered by stomach tube or by subcutaneous, intramuscular, or intravenous routes to chicks, mice, rabbits, cats, dogs and monkeys.

2. The oral toxicities of menadione, menadiol and its esters are approximately one-third to one-fifteenth of their subcutaneous toxicities.

3. Menadione in an oil solution was less toxic than menadiol in an aqueous medium, but the latter compound produced less local irritation.

4. In aqueous solution, there was no significant difference between the intravenous toxicity of menadione and that of menadiol.

5. The manifestations of chronic toxicity resulting from the administration of menadione, menadiol and its esters are the result of injury to the circulating red cells and not to the hematopoietic or other systems.

6. The relative toxicities of n-alkyl esters of menadiol injected subcutaneously decrease more rapidly with increasing size of the molecules than their relative potencies.

7. The n-alkyl esters of menadiol are definitely more potent and more toxic than the corresponding iso-alkyl esters.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. H. BETHELL, C. C. STURGIS, R. A. HETTIG, and O. T. MALLERY Jr. BLOOD: A REVIEW OF THE RECENT LITERATURE Arch Intern Med, August 1, 1943; 72(2): 260 - 299. [Abstract] [PDF]