Arsenical drugs Arsphenamine ‘Salvarsan

In 1910, Ehrlich made a historic discovery while investigating one of these arsenicals, the antisyphilitic drug arsphenamine. This particular drug, with the laboratory code designation 606, was so effective in laboratory tests that it was announced as a cure for the dreaded disease and was referred to as a magic bullet . Although the marketed form of the chemical, Salvarsan, ultimately proved to be too toxic for human use, arsphenamine was the opening event in the chemotherapeutic revolution for the treatment of human infections. 

Arsenic has a special place in the history of modern medicine. In 1910, German biologist Paul Ehrlich (1854—1915) invented the first drug that would cure syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease. This drug, called salvarsan, is a compound of arsenic. Its chemical name is arsphenamine. 

The toxicity of arsenic has been put into practical use in medicine. Ehrlich in 1909 developed Salvarsan, the trade name for arsphenamine (1), which was the first modern chemotherapeutic agent effective in the treatment of syphilis, which was eventually phased out by better organoarsenicals and latter by penicillin. Some specialist arsenical drugs are still the treatment of choice for amoebic infections like glycobiarsol 2) ... 

Arsenic was, without doubt, important in the successful treatment of S5q>hilis. The drug Salvarsan (arsphenamine) was discovered by Paul Erhlich during a systematic study of arsenic compounds for a potential cure for syphilis. Salvarsan is a synthetic organic chemical that contains arsenic he had tried more than 600 chemicals when he happened on this one. His quest was based on the behef that he could find a substance that was selectively toxic to the organism that causes syphilis (a spirochaete) but less toxic to the patient, a magic bullet . Only recently, arsenic trioxide (the form of arsenic commonly used for homicide) was licensed by the... 

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