206 ANTIMONY 



this case, the 58-day Te^-^'" daughter will have to be taken into account by 

 such means as resolution by measurement of different radiations, which 

 will probably be most practical, since Te^-^'" is a weak gamma emitter and 

 its contribution can be minimized by efficient beta counting; chemical 

 separation of Sb^^^ and Te^-^'"; use and measurement of Sb^" before appre- 

 ciable growth of Te^-^"* has occurred; or use in a system known to handle 

 the two radioisotopes in the same way. With Sb^-*, gamma counting is 

 less sensitive but offers the advantage that no sample preparation or self- 

 absorption corrections will be necessary. ' 



Chemistry. It is suspected that routine dry-ashing of biological sam- 

 ples may cause losses on account of the volatility of antimony trichloride. 

 A method for estimation of antimony in tissues has been described in 

 which the sample is ashed with sulfuric-nitric-perchloric acid, iron 

 removed by extraction with isopropyl ether from a HCl solution, and a 

 complex formed with rhodamine B to give a color which is measured 

 photometrically (Sb-1). 



Typical Methods. Cyclotron-produced Sb^^- and Sb^^** were converted 

 to tartar emetic and administered to dogs intravenously at a level of 

 0.8 mg antimony per kilogram body weight and to dogs and rats intra- 

 peritoneally at 1.6 mg/kg (Sb-2). Tissue samples were dried in vacuo 

 over phosphoric acid anhydride at room temperature and after determina- 

 tion of dry weights were ground to a uniform powder in a mortar. An 

 aliquot of the powder, usually 500 mg, was spread evenly in a Lucite cup 

 for measurement with a Geiger counter. Standards were prepared by 

 addition of a known amount of labeled tartar emetic to a weighed amount 

 of nonradioactive tissue, which was then carried through the same pro- 

 cedures as were the samples. The antimonial drug Fuadin, which is a 

 catechol disulfate complex of antimony, has been labeled with Sb''"--Sb^-^ 

 (Sb-3). In a typical experiment the compound was synthesized from 

 75 mg Sb203 which had been in the pile more than a week, and about one- 

 third of the yield was injected into a dog. Tissues samples were wet- 

 ashed in concentrated HNO3, and aliquots counted directly in a petri 

 dish with an end-window tube. 



Sb-1. Sandell, E. B.: "Colorimetric Determination of Traces of Metals," 2d ed., 



Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1950. 

 Sb-2. Ness, A. T., Frederick J. Brady, D. B. Cowie, and Alfred H. Lawton: Anomalous 



Distribution of Antimony in White Rats Following the Administration of 



Tartar Emetic, J. Pharmacol. Expll. Therap., 90: 174-180 (1947). 

 Sb-3. Bahner, Carl T.: Localization of Antimony in Blood, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. 



Med., 86:371-373 (1954). 



