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The author is not a physician. The content on this website does not, and is not intended to constitute medical advice. It should not be relied upon when making medical decisions. It is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare provider.

« Thiophene (Sulfur, not quite stinky) | Main | Lewisite (More good common names) »

British Anti-Lewisite (Sometimes the common name is just too cool to pass up)

Category: Medicine
Posted on: October 18, 2007 8:47 PM, by Molecule of the Day

Lewisite is nasty stuff, which I'll cover tomorrow. Tonight, it's an antidote, which is simply the dithio analogue of glycerine. It enjoys the more colorful name of BAL, or British Anti-Lewisite.

InChI: InChI=1/C3H8OS2/c4-1-3(6)2-5/h3-6H,1-2H2 InChIKey: InChIKey=WQABCVAJNWAXTE-UHFFFAOYAP


BAL is an antidote to Lewisite. It's one of the few compounds that enjoys the use of a longish common name in the literature because, honestly, it's just such a great name. "British Anti-Lewisite." I much prefer it to 1,2-dithioglycerol or anything like that...


Being a geometrically fortunate dithiol, BAL is an antidote to many other heavy metals. Dunno if anyone pays attention to the chiral center.

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You know, BAL would be a great name for a band... "the antidote to heavy metal".

Posted by: Malthus | October 25, 2007 2:10 PM

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