A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1887. 
Arbutin. 
251 
ARBUTIN. 
*  Uva  Uesi  leaves  contain,  in  addition  to  tannic  and  gallicacids,  a  bitter 
glucoside,  arbutin,  which  is  white,  crystalline,  and  soluble  in  water. 
During  the  past  four  years  several  observers  have  tried  to  determine 
whether  arbutin  might  not,  with  advantage,  be  substituted  for  the 
various  preparations  of  uva  ursi  now  in  use.  Lewin,  in  1883,  (Vir- 
chow's  Archiv,  XCII.,  p.  517,)  showed  that  arbutin  splits  up,  when 
boiled  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  into  hydrochinon,  methyl  hydro- 
chinon,  and  sugar,  and  stated  that  when  administered  it  is  in  part  de- 
composed, so  that  the  urine  contains  besides  arbutin  a  certain  amount 
of  hydrochinon.  Now  hydrochinon  is  itself  an  antiseptic  and  antipy- 
retic, and  has  been  found  useful  by  Brieger  as  an  injection  in  gonor- 
rhoea, Lewin  recommended  the  substitution  of  arbutin,  in  15  grain 
doses,  for  the  ordinary  preparations  of  uva  ursi.  Uva  ursi  is  a  re- 
puted diuretic  as  well  as  a  specific  in  vesical  catarrh.  Menche 
published  a  paper  in  1883  {Cent  f.  hi  Med.,  XXV1L,  p.  443,)  on  ar- 
butin as  a  diuretic,  and  recorded  some  cases  which  served  to  illustrate 
its  value  in  cardiac  dropsy.  Subsequent  observations  have  not  con- 
firmed Menche' s  views  on  this  point.  In  a  few  cases  of  cardiac  dropsy, 
in  which  the  drug  was  given  at  the  Manchester  Infirmary,  it  proved 
wholly  inefficacious  as  a  diuretic. 
Paschkis  ( Wien.  med.  Presse,  1884,  No.  13)  obtained  no  good  re- 
sults from  the  use  of  arbutin  in  several  cases  of  cystitis  and  gonor- 
rhoea, though  he  found  these  ailments  markedly  improved  by  uva  ursi 
itself.  Either  arbutin  is  not  the  active  curative  principle,  at  least  in 
the  doses  employed  by  Paschkis  (30  grains  daily,),  or  the  preparation 
he  used  was  not  arbutin. 
Schmiz  (Cent.f.  hi.  Med.  No.  49,  1884)  found  arbutin  very  useful 
in  some  cases  of  bladder  catarrh.  He  did  not  see  good  results  follow 
its  use  in  all  cases,  but  recommends  its  use  in  preference  to  uva  ursi  it- 
self. Very  recently  Kunkel  [Mi'mch.  med.  Woch.,  December  7thr 
1886)  published  his  investigations  upon  the  absorption  and  excretion 
of  arbutin,  and  has  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  greater  part  is 
excreted  unchanged ;  a  little  is  decomposed  in  the  intestine,  but  it  is 
not  decomposed,  as  Menche  thought,  in  its  passage  through  the  system. 
At  the  present  time  then  the  value  of  arbutin  must  be  regarded  as 
doubtful,  and  though  it  may  be  tried  in  doses  of  10  grains,  where  or- 
dinary remedies  have  failed  to  relieve  bladder  catarrh,  it  cannot  be 
used  as  a  reliable  remedy.  Moreover  its  price  (about  eighteen  pence  a 
drachm)  prevents  its  extensive  use. — Med.  Chronicle,  March  J  887. 
