title: Liquor made quicker: alcohol as a synthetic reagent for molecules in anesthesia.
abstract: Ethanol was an early anesthetic, and chemists transformed it into better ones. Hypnotic/anesthetic/analgesic molecules prepared from ethanol include barbiturates, benzocaine, chloral hydrate, chloroform, diethyl ether, ethyl chloride, ethylene, etomidate, meperidine, paraldehyde, phenacetin, procaine, tribromoethanol, and urethane. Ethanol was sometimes mixed deliberately with the other anesthetics, and John Snow's inhaled amylene came from the "fusel oil" fraction of rotgut whisky.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fragoza
authors.forename: Theodore A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Alston
mesh_terms: D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000266:history; D000777:Anesthetics / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000266:history; D001463:Barbiturates / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000266:history; D001566:Benzocaine / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000266:history; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000266:history / Q000378:metabolism; D002725:Chloroform / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000266:history; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000266:history / Q000378:metabolism; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century
chemical_list: D000777:Anesthetics; D001463:Barbiturates; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol; D002725:Chloroform; D001566:Benzocaine