Uric acid lithium salt

Uric acid CAS 69-93-2, (C5H4O3N4) is a white solid, insoluble in cold water, alcohol or ether, sparingly soluble in hot water. Uric acid is a weak dibasic acid thus forming two series of salts, most of which are very slightly soluble in water (lithium urate soluble),... 

However laboratory experiments showed that it did not in fact dissolve uric acid crystals, and its use started to decline. Uric acid also dropped out of fashion. However old ideas and practices can take a long time to die out. Lithium continued to be prescribed for gout, arthritis, rheumatism and other complaints. It was listed as a recommended treatment for these conditions until the 1930s in major pharmacopoeias. Even when these publications admitted there was no rational foundations for the use of these (lithium) salts, they still listed indications for lithium use and instructions on how to administer it... 

The story of lithium parallels other stories in medical history where the medicinal value of a substance is discovered accidently. In 1949, John Cade, an Australian psychiatrist, decided to experiment with lithium on guinea pigs. He theorized that uric acid was a cause of manic behavior. Since he needed to keep the uric acid soluble, he used lithium salts as an agent in the solution. The guinea pigs did not become manic as he expected, but instead they responded by becoming extremely calm. 

Lithium urates.—The acid salt, CsH3N40jLi, is formed by dissolving uric acid in a warm solution of lithium carbonate. It crystallizes in needles, which dissolve in 60 parts of HaO at 50° (122° F.) and do not separate when the solution is cooled. It is partly with a view to the formation of this, the most soluble of the acid urates, that the compounds of lithium are given to patients suffering with the uric acid diathesis. 

Uric acid is difficultly soluble in water at 18.5° one part of acid dissolves in 10,000 parts of water. It is a weak dibasic acid, which forms two series of salts. The normal sodium salt has the composition CBH203N4Na2.H20, and is soluble in 62 parts of water at room temperature. The acid salt, 2(C6H303-N4Na).H20, is soluble in about 1100 parts of water at 15°. Normal lithium urate is moderately soluble in water on account of this fact lithia-water has been suggested as a remedy for gout. 

In the mid-nineteenth century, the alkaline properties of lithium salts were widely used to treat various uric acid diatheses which included the many manifestation of brain gout including headache, epilepsy, mania and depression (Amdisen and Hildebrandt, 1988). During the 1950s, the... 

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