Health Sciences · Temerty Faculty of Medicine
A blue carton, printed in blue, black, and white, contains a glass vial with 10 cc. of heparin. The vial has a metal cap and a paper label in the same colours as the carton. The carton also contains a folded paper information sheet.
Both the carton and the label on the vial are marked with handwritten dates.
Accession Number: 2026.med.61
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Cardboard, Glass, Heparin.
In on the carton and vial label includes the following catalogue number: “List No. 3672”.
Handwritten on two sides of the carton: “2-12-46”
Handwritten on the vial label: “Feb1946”
Carton: Height = 6.7, Width = 3, Length = 3.
Heparin is a blood anticoagulant. It increases the activity of antithrombin, a protein produced by the liver that regulates blood clotting. It is a biological medicine, meaning that it is derived from animal tissues.
The development of Heparin in the mid 1930s facilitated or improved a number of medical therapies. This included the prevention of blood clots during the use of cardiopulmonary bypass technology, which revolutionized cardiac surgery around the middle of the 20th century. Heparin is still widely used today.
This artifact is complete and unused. The carton has areas of minor damage, especially on its lower edges. The paper label on the vial has slight damage to its lower edge.
Associated Instruments:
Abbot Laboratories. Chicago, Illanois, U.S.A.
Date of Manufacture: 1946
Provenance:
T. W. Barrowcliffe (2011) “History of heparin.” In Heparin-A Century of progress, ed. by Rebecca Lever, Barbara Mulloy and Clive P. Page 3-22. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
In 1939, Roche-Organon produced the first clinically usable heparin to be manufactured in the United States, which they marketed under the name Liquaemin. It is currently not clear when Abbott Laboratories began producing heparin, but the date on this example implies that production began at some point between 1939 and 1946.