Chemical Identity
Names, formulas, salts, structural terminology, and the distinction between arsanilic acid and sodium arsanilate.
HISTORY OF CHEMOTHERAPY • ARSENIC • TOXICOLOGY
Atoxyl: promise, poison, and a turning point in medicine
Explore the chemical identity, sleeping-sickness campaigns, optic toxicity, ethical controversies, and research legacy of one of the earliest synthetic anti-infective drugs.
As
NH₂OOHSafety notice: This is a historical reference. It does not provide medical, dosing, synthesis, handling, or exposure-response instructions.
Sleeping Sickness
How African trypanosomiasis created urgent demand for new treatments.
Optic Toxicity
Why visual injury and optic-nerve damage became defining safety failures of Atoxyl.
Paul Ehrlich
How Atoxyl influenced Ehrlich’s search for selectively toxic chemical treatments.
From Atoxyl to Salvarsan
The scientific path connecting Atoxyl research to a landmark syphilis treatment.
Medical Ethics
Consent, vulnerable populations, colonial power, and retrospective interpretation.
A scientific paradox
The name implied safety. History proved otherwise.
Atoxyl showed activity against trypanosomes but caused severe visual toxicity. The effort to improve it helped shape the concept of selective chemotherapy and the later development of arsenical drugs.