Inorganic chemicals in medicine

Inorganic chemicals have been used in medicine since ancient times, although perhaps today we might question the efficacy of these remedies. One of the earliest examples was the use of mercury as a drug by Greek physician Hippocrates later Paracelsus used mercurous chloride as a diuretic. In the 19th century, mixtures of gold compounds with sodium chloride were used to treat syphilis — unsuccessfully  

However, metal compounds do play a vital role in modem medicine. One of the most important breakthroughs was the discovery of the anti-tumour properties of platinum complexes, notably cis-platin (Stmcture 3.1), by Barnett Rosenberg and his colleagues in the 1960s. Platinum dmgs are now widely used in cancer chemotherapy, with particular success in the treatment of testicular and ovarian tumours. Other examples include sodium bicarbonate and magnesium and 

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