Effect and Mode of Action of Tartrates in the Human Body.

Though tartrates have long been used in medicine, and grapes and grape products, the chief sources of tartrates are common foods, there is still much difference of opinion as to the effect and mode of action of tartrates in the human body. Among the unsettled questions are: 1. Are tartrates absorbed from the intestine? 2. If absorbed, are they oxidized in the tissues? 3. Are they alkalinizing? 4. If alkalinizing, how is this effect produced? Solis-Cohen and Githens, 1 Blatherwick, 2 Post, 3 and others believe tartrates are alkalinizing, the basis of their belief evidently being the idea of absorption and oxidation. Pickens and Hetler, 4 Wood, 5 Simpson, 6 Rose, 7 and others are on the contrary side of the alkalinizing question. Sollmann, 8 McGuigan 9 and others take a middle ground.

We can not tell whether tartrates are absorbed from the human intestine or not; but if they were absorbed in the case of any of our experimental subjects they were evidently oxidized, for we found no tartrates in the urine after their ingestion in quantities as great as 2 U. S. P. doses in a day's intake.

Rochelle salts, grapes, raisins and grape juice all proved to be definitely alkalinizing. Any of these substances, when added to an acid-forming diet, markedly decreased urinary acidity.

This alkalinizing effect of tartrates would be strong evidence of their absorption and oxidation, were it not for another process that explains this effect. In mixtures of feces and Rochelle salts, incubated at 37.5°C., the tartrate ions were decomposed within 6 to 24 hours. This proved true without exception in 15 cases.