Antimony therapeutic agent

Compounds of antimony have been used as therapeutic agents for thousands of years (200). There is evidence that the ancient Egyptians used a... 

Like arsenic salts, the history of antimony compounds as therapeutic agents dates back to medieval age when Paracelus (1493-1541) recommended metallic antimony and its salts as a cure for many diseases. Although the above panacea made Paracelsus the father of iatrochemistry, the therapy was later rejected by patients due to toxic effects [1,9]. The interest in antimony compounds revived during 1918-1920 when the medicinal value of tartar emetic (10), a mordant prepared in 1847 by boiling antimony trioxide and cream of tartar in water [14], was established by Christopherson [15] and Rogers [16]. 

Of the 110 or so elements there are only about 22 which occur naturally in biological systems. The use of therapeutic agents introduces about another half dozen. In earlier centuries before the advent of selective antimicrobial agents the use of the toxic elements mercury and antimony was very popular to treat the then, more or less, incurable diseases of syphilis and malaria. If a cure was effective it was often a pretty close tun thing with its opposite. 

In 1912, however, (201) it was discovered that espundia (American mucocutaneous leishmaniasis) can be cured by tartar emetic. It was soon learned that kala-a2ar (visceral leishmaniasis) and oriental sore (a cutaneous form of the disease occurring in the Middle East) also respond to antimonial therapy, especially when compounds of pentavalent antimony are employed. Treatment of leishmaniasis with the latter type of antimonials is safe and effective in over 90% of the cases (202). In 1918, it was demonstrated that tartar emetic is of value in the treatment of schistosomiasis (203). Pentavalent antimonials proved to be less effective. The introduction of antimony compounds for the treatment of parasitic diseases is undoubtedly one of the important milestones in the history of therapeutics (see Antiparasitic agents). 

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