Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
A glass ampoule contains 1.5 ml of d intravenous dose of Nikethamide (nicotinic acid diethylamide), The ampoule is marked with black printing applied to the glass surface. It has a blue ring around the narrow portion of the neck.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.69
Nikethamide, nicotinic acid diethylamide, pyridine-β-carbonic acid diethylamide
Primary Materials: Glass, nicotinic acid diethylamide,
Markings on the ampoule include the following information:
Horizontal Lettering: “CORAMINE// NIKETHALAMIDE// INJECTION B. P// S. C./ I. M./ I. V.// CIBA COMPANY LIMITED”.
Vertical lettering: “L 31035 A”
Dimensions (cm): Height = 6, Width = 1.2, Length = 1.2.
Coramine (an early trade name for nicotinic acid diethylamide,) is an analeptic medicine, meaning that it is used to stimulate the central nervous system, typically the respiratory system. Within the context of anesthesiology, Coramine was used, beginning in the 1920s, to counteract respiratory depression. This was once a relatively prevalent and potentially deadly side effect of general anesthesia in which inadequate respiration leads to hypoxia. Coramine was replaced by a newer generation of analeptic drugs beginning in the 1960s (see Ball and Featherstone 2018, 5).
Condition: This item is unused and undamaged.
Associated Instruments:
CIBA AG. (Gesellschaft fur Chemische Industrie Basel) Basel, Switzerland
Date of Manufacture: 1920s to mid-20th c.
Provenance:
Edwin Stanton Faust. (1925) “On Pyridine-β-carbonic acid diethylamide and its use as an analeptic.” The Lancet (British Edition) 205, 5313: 1336–39.
G. Norman Myers (1940) “An Experimental Investigation on the Action of Coramine.” Epidemiology and Infection 40, 4: 474–500.
C. M. Ball, and P. J Featherstone (2018). “Coramine and Other Analeptics.” Anaesthesia and Intensive Care 46, 1: 3–5.
Coramine was introduced in the 1920s following a search for an effective and water soluble alternative to the earliest analeptic drugs (camphor, strychnine, and adrenaline). It was first manufactured by the Swiss Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie Basel (“Society of Chemical Industry in Basel”), later named CIBA AG.
Various trade names were introduced following the expiration of the CIBA patent in 1939.