Abstract
Antidiabetic action of the mesoxalates, since reported by Kobayashi et al. (1) and Kobayashi and Ohashi (2), has been widely acknowledged and some clinical investigators [Sakaguchi et al. (3), Kurokawa et al. (4), Takeda et al. (5), Kodama (6)] have published their observations on its therapeutical evaluation for the control of diabetic patients. It is noteworthy, however, that the mesoxalates could not be pharmacologically evidenced to show any blood sugar lowering effect in normal animals. On the other hand, Takeuchi (7) reported recently that some compounds possessing polycarbonyl radical in their chemical structure showed the similar effect on the glucose tolerance in rabbits with that of mesoxalates, and especially, the cyclic polycarbonyls such as trichinoyl or rhodizonic acid, were found to have the 100-fold potency when that of mesoxalates was evaluated 1 potency. According to his previous report (8), a new screening test for the mesoxalinic activity had to be established, since the mesoxalates was considered too weak to produce a hypoglycemia. The compounds, consequently, evaluated to have a strong activity by Takeuchi's method should be examined on their blood sugar lowering effect. The present communication describes the result of experiments on hypoglycemic activity of rhodizonate, trichinoyl and tetrahydroxyquinone.
