Mersalyl

• Salyrgan
• Mercusal
• Mersalylsäure (rare)
• Mersalin
• Salurin

• 486-67-9
• 492-18-2 (sodium salt)

C03BC01

White powder

Diuretic

Fixed

1,043

192-193 ° C ( decomposition)

Soluble in ammonia not miscible with water

Risk

• 72.6 mg · kg -1 ( LD50, mouse, i.v., sodium salt)
• 17.7 mg · kg -1 ( LD50, rat, iv, sodium salt)

Template: Infobox chemical / molecular formula search available

Mersalyl (actually Mersalylsäure ) is an organomercury compound with diuretic action. Mersalyl is no longer used as a drug because it has been supplanted by other diuretics, which do not contain mercury and therefore less toxic.

Mersalyl is used since the 1960s in biochemical experiments as a water-soluble, non- membrane-permeable inhibitor for the reversible blocking of sulfhydryl groups in proteins.

Synthesis

The first synthesis of mersalyl (sodium salt, 505.87 g / mol) was published by Otto Diels and Erich Beccard. The taste is described as bitter. If mersalyl is exposed to daylight or is in solution, the compound decomposes slowly and is mercury free; For this reason, the substance to be buried often small amounts of theophylline, which slow down this process.

Bockmühl and Black reported mersalyl 1925 Hoechst patent.