Merbromin

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Merbromin

Systematic name	dibromohydroxymercurifluorescein
Chemical formula	C₂₀H₈Br₂Hg Na₂O₆
Molecular mass	804.75 g/mol
Density	x.xxx g/cm³
Melting point	xx.x °C
Boiling point	xx.x °C
CAS number	[129-16-8]
EINECS number	204-933-6
SMILES	xxxxx
Disclaimer and references

Merbromin (marketed as Mercurochrome, Merbromine, Sodium mercurescein, Asceptichrome, Supercrome and Cinfacromin) is a topical antiseptic used for minor cuts and scrapes. It is no longer sold in the USA because of its mercury content. Merbromin is an organomercuric disodium salt compound and a fluorescein.

An example of Mercurochrome

1 Uses
2 Mercurochrome & Tinctures
- 2.1 Cultural references
3 External links

[edit] Uses

Merbromin's best-known use is as a topical antiseptic, now no longer approved by the FDA. It is also used as a biological dye used to mark tissue margins, and as a metal dye in industrial dye penetrant inspection to detect metal fractures.

[edit] Mercurochrome & Tinctures

Mercurochrome is the trade name of merbromin and (usually) of merbromin tinctures made of merbromin and alcohol or water (usually 2% merbromin to 98% alcohol or water).

Its antiseptic qualities were discovered by Johns Hopkins doctor Hugh Young in 1919. The chemical soon became popular among parents and doctors for everyday antiseptic uses and it was very commonly used for minor injuries in the schoolyard, where children nicknamed the tincture 'Monkey Blood'. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed it from the "generally recognized as safe" and into the 'untested' classification to effectively halt its distribution in the United States in 1998 over fears of potential mercury poisoning. It is readily available in most other countries.

[edit] Cultural references

Mercurochrome is mentioned several times in Joseph Heller's 1955 novel Catch-22.

Mercurochrome is mentioned several times in Ernest Hemingway's novel Islands in the Stream published posthumously by Mary Hemingway.

Mercurochrome is mentioned in J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories in the short story, "Just Before the War With the Eskimos"

A 1973 episode of M*A*S*H (5 O'Clock Charlie), an inept North Korean pilot, known as "5 O'Clock Charlie", makes his daily attempt to bomb the ammo dump. Frank puts in a request for an anti-aircraft gun, which is granted when Charlie hits General Clayton's jeep. Frank takes charge of the gun, while Hawkeye and Trapper are determined to prevent him using it, by getting rid of the ammo dump by painting sheets with mercurochrome to make a large bullseye. Frank misses Charlie but destroys the dump.

In the 1980 Salman Rushdie novel, Midnight's Children, European-trained doctor Aadam Aziz is described administering mercurochrome on wounded civilians during the time of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Armistar (April 1919).

In the 1986 film The Golden Child, Eddie Murphy's character asks the villain for mercurochrome after receiving an arm wound during a dream sequence.

In the musical and movie RENT, Angel sings in "Today 4 U" the line, "the nurse took him home for some mercurochrome, and I dressed his wounds and got him back on his feet..."

In Robert Altman's film O.C. and Stiggs, Mercurochrome is mentioned in a pre-wedding sequence, when it is jokingly suggested to add mercurochrome dots to a bandage covering a cyst.