Glaucine Hydrobromide

Short summary description:

• Categories/Mainstream: Active pharmaceutical ingradient
• IUPAC Name: 4H-Dibenzo(de,g)quinoline,5,6,6a,7-tetrahydro-6-methyl-1,2,9,10-tetramethoxy-, hydrobromide, (+-)-
• Botanical Source: Glaucium flavum herba
• CAS number: 50722-32-2
• Molecular formula: C21H26BrNO4
• Molecular mass: 436.30 g/mol
• Country of origin: Bulgaria

The origin of raw material:

The yellow poppy is a well-known traditional remedy in Bulgarian folk medicine. Poppy is a flowering plant from the Papaveraceae family. The raw material is cultivated throughout the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, with suppliers of the plant product having over 20 years of experience in cultivating medicinal plants and adhering to established good agricultural practices.

Technological process:

Alkaloids production process requires multiple extractions using solvents of varying polarities. Glaucine undergoes various technologically complex operations, through which a dry substance is obtained from a beautiful plant like the yellow poppy. Like all products manufactured on the company's production lines, Glaucine HBr is a pharmaceutical-grade product (According to ICH Q7). The process of obtaining the purified molecule from the raw material is completely transparent and traceable. Production is carried out annually and covers 5 production workshops located on an area of 2000 square meters. The raw material, intermediate products, and purified substance are tested using validated analytical methods.

Properties:

Glaucine hydrobromide (HBr) is primarily recognized for its effectiveness as a cough suppressant. Beyond its antitussive properties, research suggests that glaucine may also possess anti-inflammatory and bronchodilator effects, potentially offering relief for conditions such as asthma and arthritis. Furthermore, preliminary studies hint at glaucine's antioxidant properties and its potential as an analgesic, indicating a broader spectrum of health benefits worth exploring.

Bronchodilator effect

Glaucine demonstrated inhibitory effects on resting and histamine-induced tension in the bronchi, with a pD2 of *4.5 and maximal relaxation close to that of theophylline (1 mM). The mechanism underlying its bronchorelaxing effect could be attributed to the inhibition of PDE4 by glaucine. However, glaucine failed to potentiate the relaxation induced by isoprenaline, despite increasing the cyclic AMP levels produced by this β-adrenoceptor agonist. Additionally, it was found that H-89, a selective PKA inhibitor, did not counteract the bronchial relaxant response to glaucine but inhibited the responses to forskolin. Overall, the results of this study indicate that Ca2+ channel antagonism appears to be the main mechanism responsible for the relaxation produced by glaucine in human isolated bronchi (Cortijo et. al., 1999)

Asthma treatment

Selective phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitors are of potential interest in the treatment of asthma.

Inhibitory effects of glaucine on human polymorphonuclear leukocytes PDE4 is the major isoenzyme present in human PMNs and its inhibition leads to elevation of cyclic AMP levels and the subsequent inhibition of a number of functional responses. The functional relevance of the PDE4 inhibition produced by glaucine was demonstrated in this study by the finding that glaucine (10 mM) augmented cyclic AMP levels in FMLP-activated human PMNs, and enhanced also the cyclic AMP accumulation produced by isoprenaline. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of glaucine against superoxide generation elicited by FMLP was antagonized by H-89, a selective PKA inhibitor that also depressed the inhibitory response produced by rolipram in the same preparation. Consistent with these results, glaucine inhibited a wide array of functional responses of human PMNs activated by FMLP. The potency values of glaucine as inhibitor of superoxide generation, elastase release, [Ca2+]i signal, and platelet aggregation were one to two orders of magnitude lower than its potency as PDE4 inhibitor. Similar differences in potencies have been reported for second-generation PDE4 inhibitors.

Antitussive effect

The use of glaucine as a cough suppressant is not a new discovery. For this purpose, a clinical study involving 90 adult individuals was conducted.

The results of preliminary single-dose studies indicated that glaucine was as effective as codeine and more effective than placebo and dextromethorphan in suppressing chronic cough. The efficacy of glaucine treatment was significantly superior to codeine in all evaluated parameters, including physician’s score on cough severity, patients’ score on cough severity, and patients’ visual analogue scale on cough severity. Moreover, glaucine treatment was better tolerated than codeine treatment, with fewer reported side-effects such as nausea, constipation, and vomiting. In the second study, the good efficacy and tolerability of glaucine treatment were confirmed in patients receiving the drug for a longer period of time. In conclusion, the results of these two studies confirm preliminary data on the antitussive effect of glaucine in man, suggesting that glaucine might be better tolerated than codeine (Gastpar et. al., 1983).

Repellent Action

Lavender essential oil (Lavandula angustifolia) possesses repellent properties, as demonstrated in several studies (Jaenson et al., 2006). Supporting this claim (Shooshtari et al., 2012) is the fact that the essential oil has a clearly pronounced mosquito-repelling effect. It is effectively used as an anti-mosquito agent with a safer effect than traditionally used active substances.
The potential for use as an insecticide is supported by the following study (Al-Harbi et al., 2021). This study suggests its use against specific pests affecting grain crops, especially during storage. With the clear measures imposed by the EU regarding the reduction of pesticides used, this essential oil emerges as an interesting ingredient in the fight against this negatively impacting insect on crops.

Chemical structure:

Product specification