Not just an explosive

Once considered a powerful explosive, nitroglycerine is now a life saviour, enunciates Dr S Vatsala. 

A  couple of years ago, my dad passed away. When he was bed-ridden, he developed bedsores. Looking at him in great pain, I decided to do something. Analysing the sores, I realised that they occur because of the lack of blood circulation at that spot. If only circulation could be restored, the sore would heal.

But restoring the circulation would mean bringing oxygen (from haemoglobin), nutrients, white blood corpuscles and other ailing factors of blood to the ailing spot. It was then that I remembered the prescription of the sorbitrate tablets to the cardiac patients. They are asked to keep a tablet under their tongue to tide over an emergency situation. Sorbitrate being a vasodilator, widens the blood vessels and improves the blood flow.

I powdered a couple of the sorbitrate tablets (5mg), mixed with lacto-calamine lotion and applied it on the sores. Voila, all the sores healed within a short span of time!

Wondering what this wonderful drug is? Well, sobitrate belongs to the nitrate group of drugs. Sorbitrate, ismo, dilatrate, isordil, are some of the commercial names. Nitrates are used as vasodilators, primarily to relieve chest pain. Some of the other conditions where the vasodilating nitrates are useful are anal fissures, Raynaud’s disease and achalasia, among many others. Nitroglycerine (NG) is available as sublingual tablets,sprays, transdermal ointment, patches and as solution for intravenous use.

NG was first synthesised by the Italian chemist Ascanio Subrero in 1846. Through his experiments, Ascanio realised that NG is the second-most explosive substance after gun powder. Since his face was badly scarred as a result of an explosion, he realised that NG is too dangerous to be of any practical use.

Ascanio once said, “When I think of all the victims killed during NG explosions and the terrible havoc that has been wrecked, which in all probability will continue to occur in the future, I am almost ashamed to admit to be its discoverer.”

But this explosive substance caught the fancy of Alfred Nobel, who found safer ways to deal with it. Later, he adopted NG as a commercially useful explosive and established several factories all over Europe to manufacture NG. However, not everybody used this hazardous substance for violence. Dr William Murrell experimented with NG to alleviate angina pectoris and to reduce blood pressure. He began treating patients with small doses of NG in 1878 and published his results in The Lancet in 1879. The medical establishment used the name glyceryl nitrate or trinitrin to avoid alarming patients who associated NG with explosions.

The endless list of life-saving drugs that emanated from the NG have the potential to cure a number of ailments. The process of vasodilation that NG brings about is not yet fully exploited and needs to be worked upon to bring relief to those in pain.

(The author is a retired professor of chemistry)