Ascorbic Acid and Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetate as Antidotes in Experimental Vanadium Poisoning

Summary

1. Ascorbic acid at 1 g/kg when administered prior to vanadium antagonizes the toxicity of vanadium as NaVO₃ · H₂O in mice at the LD₇₀ and LD₉₅ levels. Dosage levels as low as 125 mg/kg ascorbic acid showed a protective action against the LD₇₀ of NaVO₃ · H₂O in mice. 2. Antidotal effects of calcium disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetate and ascorbic acid have been demonstrated in vanadium-poisoned rats and dogs, after signs of toxicity had become manifest. 3. Ascorbic acid is probably the more rapidly-acting of the 2 antidotes. Signs of vanadium toxicity were present for a longer period of time in vanadium-poisoned animals after CaNa₂EDTA than after ascorbic acid administration. 4. One possible mode of detoxication of vanadium by ascorbic acid is suggested, on the basis of in vitro polarographic studies, to be reduction of the vanadium.