Antimony potassium tartrate

Medical

The first treatment application against trypanosomiasis was tested in 1906, and the compound's use to treat other tropical diseases was researched. The treatment of leishmania with antimony potassium tartrate started in 1913. After the introduction of antimony(V) containing complexes like sodium stibogluconate and meglumine antimoniate, the use of antimony potassium tartrate was phased out. After British physician John Brian Christopherson's discovery in 1918 that antimony potassium tartrate could cure schistosomiasis, the antimonial drugs became widely used. However, the injection of antimony potassium tartrate had severe side effects such as Adams–Stokes syndrome{{Cite journal

Tartar emetic was used in the late 19th and early 20th century in patent medicine as a remedy for alcohol intoxication, and was first ruled ineffective in the United States in 1941, in United States v. 11 1/4 Dozen Packages of Articles Labeled in Part Mrs. Moffat's Shoo-Fly Powders for Drunkenness.

In 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine reported a case study of a patient whose wife secretly gave him a dose of a product called "tartaro emetico" which contained trivalent antimony (antimony potassium tartrate) and is sold in Central America as an aversive treatment for alcohol use disorder. The patient, who had been out drinking the night before, developed persistent vomiting shortly after being given orange juice with the drug. When admitted to the hospital, and later in the intensive care unit, he experienced severe chest pains, cardiac abnormalities, renal and hepatic toxicity, and nearly died. The Journal reports that "Two years later, he [the patient] reports complete abstinence from alcohol."

Emetic

Antimony potassium tartrate's potential as an emetic has been known since the Middle Ages. The compound itself was considered toxic and therefore a different way to administer it was found. Cups made from pure antimony were used to store wine for 24 hours and then the resulting solution of antimony potassium tartrate in wine was consumed in small portions until the wanted emetic effect was reached.

Poisoning by "tartarised antimony" or "emetic tartar" is a plot device in the first modern detective novel, The Notting Hill Mystery (1862). The emetic tartar was kept by a character in the novel because he was "addicted to the pleasures of the table, and was in the habit of taking an occasional emetic."

The compound is still used to induce vomiting in captured animals in order to study their diets.

Insecticide

Antimony potassium tartrate is used as an insecticide against thrips. It is in IRAC class 8E.

Preparation, structure, reactions

Antimony potassium tartrate is prepared by treating a solution of potassium hydrogen tartrate and antimony trioxide: :2KOH + Sb2O3 + (HOCHCO2H)2 → K2Sb2(C4H2O6)2 + 3H2O

With an excess of tartaric acid, the monoanionic monoantimony salt is produced:

:2KOH + Sb2O3 + 4(HOCHCO2H)2 → 2KSb(C4H2O6)2 + 2H2O

Antimony potassium tartrate has been the subject of several X-ray crystallography studies. The core complex is an anionic dimer of antimony tartrate (Sb2(C4H2O6)22-) which is arranged in a large ring with the carbonyl groups pointing outwards. The complex has D2 molecular symmetry with two Sb(III) centers bonded in distorted square pyramids. Water and potassium ions are held within the unit cell but are not tightly bound to the dimer. The anion is a well-used resolving agent.

References

References

1. (2005). "CSD Entry: DKSBTR02: Di-potassium bis(μ₂-tartrato)-di-antimony trihydrate". [[Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre]].
2. (2003). "Interaction of antimony tartrate with the tripeptide glutathione". European Journal of Biochemistry.
3. (1916). "The history of the use of intravenous injections of tartar emetic (Antimonium tartaratum) in tropical medicine". Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
4. (2010). "Metal-based drugs for malaria, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis: Recent achievements and perspectives". Drug Discovery Today.
5. (1918). "The Successful Use of Antimony in Bilharziosis". The Lancet.
6. (2009-07-15). "Poison in small measure: Dr. Christopherson and the cure for bilharzia". BRILL.
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11. "United States v. 111/4 DOZEN PACKAGES, ETC....".
12. (2012). "Case 22-2012: A 34-Year-Old Man with Intractable Vomiting after Ingestion of an Unknown Substance". New England Journal of Medicine.
13. (1977). "President's address. Observations upon antimony". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.
14. (1926). "Antimonyall Cupps: Pocula Emetica or Calices Vomitorii". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.
15. (1922). "The Mechanism of the Vomiting Induced by Antimony and Potassium Tartrate (Tartar Emetic)". Journal of Experimental Medicine.
16. Felix, Charles. "The Notting Hill Mystery".
17. (1994). "Effect and Efficiency of Tartar Emetic in Determining the Diet of Tropical Land Birds". The Condor.
18. (2006). "Relative Efficiency of Fecal versus Regurgitated Samples for Assessing Diet and the Deleterious Effects of a Tartar Emetic on Migratory Birds". Journal of Field Ornithology.
19. (2007). "Commentary: Ipecac: An Improved Emetic for Wild Birds". Journal of Field Ornithology.
20. (1 January 1996). "Citrus thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in Swaziland develop tolerance to tartar emetic bait". African Entomologist.
21. (2021). "Insecticide resistance management and industry: the origins and evolution of the I nsecticide R esistance A ction C ommittee (IRAC) and the mode of action classification scheme". Pest Management Science.
22. (March 2005). "Bond valence sums and structural studies of antimony complexes containing Sb bonded only to O ligands". Inorganica Chimica Acta.
23. (1 August 1965). "Structures involving unshared electron pairs: coordination of antimony in racemic potassium antimonyl tartrate". Acta Crystallographica.
24. (September 1969). "Structure of potassium antimony tartrate". Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry.
25. (November 1972). "Studies on complexes of tartaric acid—I". Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry.
26. (31 March 1970). "The crystal and molecular structure of racemic potassium di-μ-tartrato-diantimonate(III) trihydrate (racemic 'tartar emetic')". Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry.
27. (January 1974). "X-ray and white radiation neutron diffraction studies of optically active potassium antimony tartrate, K₂Sb₂(d-C₄H₂O₆)₂·3H₂O (tarter emetic)". Inorganica Chimica Acta.
28. F. P. Dwyer. (1960). "Resolution of ''cis''-Dinitrobis(ethylenediamine)cobalt Ion".