Word: dicumarol
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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...chemical that makes cattle bleed to death, Dicumarol, is now saving human lives. If a man takes Dicumarol capsules before or after an operation, dangerous blood clots may not form in his veins. The discoverer of the drug, Dr. Karl Paul Link, professor of biochemistry at the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, recently told the Harvey Society at the New York Academy of Medicine about...
...made his discovery when cattlemen in North Dakota and Canada complained that some of their stock died from bleeding scratches and bumps, like human hemophiliacs. He found the guilty chemical in spoiled sweet-clover hay, named it Dicumarol because it is formed from the harmless chemical, coumarin, which gives fresh clover its smell. The cows' problem was solved by planting clover with a low coumarin content...
...Link and co-workers went on to get Dicumarol in pure form and then to synthesize it. They found that in the body it makes salicylic acid. Another anticoagulant, heparin, was already on the market. It is also used to keep donors' blood fluid until it can be processed. But it is an expensive extract of ox lung and liver, must be given by injection, and is hard to control. Therefore surgeons (who worry lest a fatal clot undo their work) took up Dicumarol...
...patient taking Dicumarol need not fear that he will bleed to death. Dr. Link explained that it can be counteracted by 1) a small transfusion, 2) a large dose (an injection) of vitamin K, the antihemorrhagic vitamin in leafy vegetables...