Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
Warfarin belongs to a previously-covered class of molecules known as the coumarins. Coumarins see use both as anticoagulants (in people) and poisons (in certain small animals).
Warfarin works by inhibiting a crucial step in vitamin K metabolism. Its structure isn't so far off:
Vitamin K is named for the German koagulation. We get a lot of our chemical vocabulary from German - it wasn't that long ago that American chemistry undergrads had to take German as part of their degree. This is no longer the case, and it probably leads to a lot of frustration the first time people are looking over a periodic table: Ok, hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, Na? K?
These come from the German natrium and kalium. If it weren't for English's Germanic roots, I guarantee you that chemical terms would make even less sense!
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Comments
Many years ago I used to walk by the Warf (Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation) building in Madison amazed that it was built partly because of this drug, and its patent. I hope it continues a lonng time.
Posted by: Markk | January 22, 2007 6:54 PM
Wasn't it first discovered in fermented clover after a bunch of livestock bled to death after ingesting it? Not quite as nice as the discovery of artificial sweeteners, but another interesting serendipitous find.
Posted by: Jon | January 22, 2007 8:57 PM
The first off-campus house I (and six of my closest friends) first lived in as an undergrad had a mouse problem. At one point, we had both poison (could've been Warfarin, I suppose, but definitely an anticoagulant) AND spring traps out. All I can say is that if a mouse is unfortunate enough to gorge on anticoagulants and then survive long enough to find a trap, you may learn that a tiny mouse contains a shocking amount of blood. I don't think I'll ever forget the gruesome sight of the puddle on the kitchem floor one morning...
Posted by: Russ | January 23, 2007 8:29 AM
The word natrium, as well as many other 'strange' looking elemental symbols, actually have their roots in Latin.
Na - Natrium
K - Kalium
Cu - Cuprum
Sn - Stannum
Sb - Stibium
Hg - Hydrargyrum (actually Latinized Greek)
W - Wolfram
Pb - Plumbum
Just a little food for thought, I know all those years studying Latin would pay off...
Posted by: Around the corner and down the hal | January 23, 2007 8:55 AM
Looks like you are right, Kalium is apparently from Arabic actually! Thanks for the correction, I just deleted that part of the post, since there wasn't really a way to rework it in a way that made sense.
Posted by: MotD | January 23, 2007 9:56 AM
Just to be explicit, yes, warfarin is in fact named for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The joke etymology "Wisconsin Anti-Rat Federation" was also used.
Posted by: Adam | January 24, 2007 8:51 PM