Furazolidone

Furazolidone

Clinical data
AHFS/Drugs.com	Micromedex Detailed Consumer Information
Routes of administration	Oral-Local
ATC code	G01AX06 (WHO) QJ01XE90 (WHO)
Identifiers
IUPAC name 3-{[(5-nitro-2-furyl)methylene]amino}-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one
CAS Number	67-45-8 Y
PubChem CID	3435
DrugBank	DB00614 Y
ChemSpider	3317 Y
UNII	5J9CPU3RE0
KEGG	C07999 N
ChEMBL	CHEMBL1103 N
ECHA InfoCard	100.000.594
Chemical and physical data
Formula	C8H7N3O5
Molar mass	225.16
3D model (Jmol)	Interactive image
SMILES [O-][N+](=O)c2oc(C=NN1C(=O)OCC1)cc2
InChI InChI=1S/C8H7N3O5/c12-8-10(3-4-15-8)9-5-6-1-2-7(16-6)11(13)14/h1-2,5H,3-4H2 Y Key:PLHJDBGFXBMTGZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Y
NY (what is this?)

Furazolidone is a nitrofuran antibacterial agent. It is marketed by Roberts Laboratories under the brand name Furoxone and by GlaxoSmithKline as Dependal-M. Diafuron, medaron

Furazolidone has been used in human and veterinary medicine. It has a broad spectrum of activity being active against

In humans it has been used to treat diarrhoea and enteritis caused by bacteria or protozoan infections. It has been used to treat traveler's diarrhoea, cholera and bacteremic salmonellosis. Use in treating Helicobacter pylori infections has also been proposed.

Furazolidone is also used for giardiasis (due to Giardia lamblia), though it is not a first line treatment.

As a veterinary medicine, furazolidone has been used with some success to treat salmonids for Myxobolus cerebralis infections.

It has also been used in aquaculture.

Since furazolidone is a nitrofuran antibiotic, its use in food animals is currently prohibited by the FDA under the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act, 1994.

It is used to differentiate micrococci and staphylococci.

It is believed to work by crosslinking of DNA.

Furazolidone is no longer available in the US. Though an effective antibiotic when all others fail, against extremely drug resistant infections, it has many side effects, and as with other nitrofurans generally, minimum inhibitory concentrations also produce systemic toxicity (tremors, convulsions, peripheral neuritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, depression of spermatogenesis.) Nitrofurans are recognized by FDA as mutagens/carcinogens, and can no longer be used since 1991.