Origin. - Prepared by passing chlorine into a mixture of potassium carbonate and slaked lime. By subsequent boiling in water the chlorate separates by crystallization.

Description and Properties. - Colorless, lustrous, monoclinic prisms or plates, or a white powder, odorless, and having a cooling, saline taste; permanent in the air; soluble in 16 parts of water; insoluble in absolute alcohol. Potassium chlorate should be kept in glass-stoppered bottles. Great caution should be observed in handling the salt, since dangerous explosions are liable to occur when it is mixed with organic matters - cork, tannic acid, sugar, etc. - or with sulphur, antimony sulphide, phosphorus, or other easily oxidizable substance, or upon being either heated directly or subjected to trituration or concussion.

Dose. - 3-20 grains (0.2-1.3 Gm.) [4 grains (0.25 Gm.), U. S. P.].

Official Preparation

Trochisci Potassii Chloratis - Trochiscos (ace.) Potassii Chloratis - Troches of Potassium Chlorate. - Each troche contains 2 1/2 grains (0.15 Gm.). - Dose, 1 to 4 troches.

Antagonists and Incompatibles. - In addition to those substances mentioned with which potassium chlorate forms explosive compounds, mixture with glycerin and the hypophosphites is liable to produce similar dangerous results.

Synergists. - Agents promoting waste increase the activity of the drug.

Physiological Action. - Externally and Locally. - It is slightly detergent and stimulant, antiseptic and astringent, being irritant when applied in concentrated solution to ulcerated surfaces.

Internally. - Digestive System. - Beyond the cool, salty, and persistent taste medicinal doses have little effect; poisonous doses excite violent gastro-intestinal irritation, nausea, bloody vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice.

Circulatory System. - Small doses of potassium chlorate tend to depress and subsequently raise arterial tension, accelerating the pulse; large doses lower arterial pressure alarmingly; toxic doses convert the hemoglobin of the blood into methemoglobin, the disorganized fluid appearing in the urine. Postmortem lesions are -enlargement of the liver, spleen, and kidneys, with evidences of marked inflammation over the whole intestinal tract.

Nervous System. - Medicinal doses are inert. Toxic doses may produce delirium and death, preceded by coma or convulsions.

Respiratory System. - Large doses act as a depressant to the respiratory apparatus.

Absorption and Elimination. - The drug is absorbed with considerable rapidity, being chiefly eliminated by the salivary glands unchanged. The drug does not increase the urinary flow, large doses, on the contrary, tending to suppress it.

Temperature. - Unaffected by medicinal doses, but lowered by toxic amounts.

Untoward Action. - Small doses of potassium chlorate seldom produce untoward symptoms, although in rare instances eruptions of an erythematous, papular, or vesicular nature have followed the use of the drug. Digestive disturbances occasionally ensue, as well as pain in the region of the kidneys and albuminuria.

Poisoning. - In a few recorded cases of poisoning there were observed a continuous sensation of choking, excessive thirst, persistent vomiting, pain in the abdomen and renal tract, and violent hiccough. Accompanying symptoms were - a small and rapid pulse and faintness, while the urine was albuminous and diminished in quantity; epistaxis was present; the eyes and lips were cyanotic, and the skin slightly jaundiced and markedly anemic; the liver and spleen were slightly enlarged; and there were alternating sensations of cold and heat, with drowsiness, ending in coma and death.

Treatment of Poisoning. - The stomach should be emptied as quickly as possible and demulcents administered. The patient should be treated symptomatically, and it may be advisable to practice venesection, followed by transfusion of blood, as suggested by Landerer.

Therapeutics. - Externally and Locally. - A solution of this drug has been applied with some success in foul ulcers and moist eczema. Like the potassium permanganate, it has been employed in various diseases of the nose and throat, and is especially serviceable in ptyalism and aphthous idceration. As a remedy for syphilitic mucous patches and herpes of the buccal cavity it is of considerable value. It is more efficient in acute than in chronic pharyngitis.

It possesses marked cicatrizing power, advantage of which property has been taken in the treatment of phagedenic sores, the powdered drug being used for this purpose. It is thought that enemas of potassium chlorate solution favor the healing of rectal ulcers.

Internally. - As a remedial agent this drug has not met with the success prophesied by many physicians. It has found some advocates as a genito-urinary antiseptic and as a remedy in typhoid fever.

Yet, notwithstanding the extravagant, though isolated, reports concerning the great value of the drug, its utility has not been universally recognized, indeed, so good an authority as Marchand declares that "chlorate of potassium should be entirely rejected in practice, and particularly in the treatment of children."

Administration. - It may be given in the form of troches, powder, tablets, or a solution, an agreeable means of administration being in aerated water. Owing to its tendency to decomposition when combined with other substances, the drug should be prescribed alone.