Phenol, the first antiseptic—a drug used to kill microbes on the skin and surgical instruments—appeared in 1867. It was effective but rather indiscriminate in its ability to destroy living cells, both of bacteria and of patients. Moreover, it was a preferred drug for committing suicide.
Over the years, chemists set to work to find derivatives that would be more active (that is, be active at lower concentrations) than phenol and also less toxic and less irritating to the patient’s skin. Hexylresorcinol was one such drug, and it continues to be used today, albeit with less frequency, in first-aid antiseptics, mouthwashes, and sore-throat products.
Bacteria, of course, reside not only on the surface but also inside the body. As many women are aware, many bacteria like to take residence in the bladder, resulting in urinary tract infections. In 1924, Veander Leonard at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health proposed the use of hexylresorcinol as a urinary antiseptic, an antibacterial drug that selectively concentrates in the urinary tract.
An Evening Post article on April 17, 1926, praised hexylresorcinol: “Dr Leonard believes, the span of life can be lengthened. ‘Disease germs no longer remain entrenched in the human body, but can be cast out, one and all.’” Notwithstanding this optimistic assessment, the appearance of the far more effective sulfa drugs and mandelic acid in the 1930s displaced hexylresorcinol for the treatment of urinary tract infections.
During the 1930s, hexylresorcinol was reintroduced to the medical world. Here, it had its greatest impact as an anthelmintic, a drug used for the treatment of worm infections. Unlike most other anthelmintics, it is effective against many different varieties of worm infections, including hookworm, roundworm, tapeworm, whipworm, and pinworm. Although not the best choice for treating any single type, it is useful because of its ability to treat mixed worm infections and its relatively low toxicity.
SEE ALSO Phenol (1867), Carbon Tetrachloride (1921), Praziquantel (1972).
This cross-section is of Ascaris roundworm, the largest and most common parasitic worm in humans. Human Parasitic Diseases Sourcebook estimates that one-quarter of the human population is infected by this worm.