抄録
Early reports by Briggs and Callow and Bullock and Cannell indicated that procaine hydrochloride, an anesthetic, is hydrolyzed to yield paraaminobenzoic acid and diethylethanolamine in aqueous solution, thus reducing the drug's efficacy.In addition to being hydrolyzed, color of an aqueous solution of the compound gradually changes to dark yellow upon prolonged autoclaving and storage.These observationswere expanded in later studies including environmental factors such as pH-and temperature elevation and the. presence of oxygen, which affect stability of the solution.
Procaine hydrochloride, on the other hand, is stable to visible light in aqueous solution.(Japanese pharmacopoeia XI, JP XI).Very little is known, however, about the effects of ultraviolet (UV) light, which may influence the drug.
The purpose of this experiment is to examine th ephotodecomposition of a procaine solution after exposure to a commonly available fluorescent lamp which including a UV region (Fig.1).
