chemistry

Sulbutiamine

Sulbutiamine is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sulbutiamine rather than just read about it. In short: Sulbutiamine sold under the brand names Arcalion, Enerion, and Sulbuxin is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). In France, it is used to treat symptoms of weakness or fatigue.

Key takeaways

Sulbutiamine belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sulbutiamine to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sulbutiamine from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sulbutiamine sold under the brand names Arcalion, Enerion, and Sulbuxin is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). In France, it is used to treat symptoms of weakness or fatigue. In Uruguay, it is prescribed when there is thiamine deficiency, mainly in patients with asthenia, overwork, apathy, depressive states, memory disorders, and iatrogenic disorders of wakefulness. It is also sold as a dietary supplement. Sulbutiamine was discovered in Japan as part of an effort to develop useful thiamine derivatives.

Uses Sulbutiamine is used to treat asthenia (weakness), though is not clear if it is effective in alleviating drowsiness. It is also used to treat thiamine deficiency and poor concentration. Being a potent cholinergic, sulbutiamine is a popular nootropic, with users reporting enhanced memory, focus, and improved mood and motivation. Endurance athletes may use it to try to enhance their performance.

Adverse effects Adverse effects found in clinical trials are usually limited to headache and gastrointestinal discomfort when high doses are used. While daily use can result in tolerance and paradoxical drowsiness, increasing the dose is strongly discouraged and side effects can include diarrhea, bladder infections, bronchitis, back pain, abdominal pain, insomnia, constipation, gastroenteritis, headache, vertigo, and sore throat.

History

Efforts to develop thiamine derivatives with better bioavailability than thiamine were conducted in the 1950s, mainly in Japan. These efforts led to the discovery of allicin (diallyl thiosulfinate) in garlic, which became a model for medicinal chemistry efforts to create other thiamine disulfides. The results included sulbutiamine, fursultiamine (thiamine tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide) and benfotiamine. These compounds are hydrophobic, easily pass from the intestines to the bloodstream, and are reduced to thiamine by cysteine or glutathione. It was first marketed in France by Servier in 1973 under the brand name Arcalion. The drug registration went through a validation procedure in France in the 1980s, which found that the use for treatment of fatigue was not supported by data. In January 1989, 100 mg tablet doses were discontinued in favour of 200 mg tablets.

Research Because thiamine deficiency causes problems with memory and other cognitive functions, thiamine and analogs like sulbutiamine have been studied in clinical trials in the 1980s and 1990s for age-associated cognitive decline. Sulbutiamine has been explored in clinical trials as a potential treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Studies have also been undertaken to assess its impact on reversing age-related changes in the circadian system. The pharmacology of sulbutiamine has been studied in various mice and rats; as of 2014 it appeared that sulbutiamine might be more effective in raising thiamine phosphate levels in the brain than benfotiamine and fursultiamine, but this has not been fully verified. University of Oxford studies indicate that it helps prevent apoptotic cell death, caused by trophic factor deprivation, in retinal ganglion cells. In an uncontrollled clinical trial, sulbutiamine was reported to be effective in reducing fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sulbutiamine

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sulbutiamine claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sulbutiamine before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sulbutiamine ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sulbutiamine

In research: Sulbutiamine appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sulbutiamine in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sulbutiamine is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aromatic amines, Dimers (chemistry), Formamides, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sulbutiamine outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sulbutiamine in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sulbutiamine means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sulbutiamine out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sulbutiamine in simple terms?

Sulbutiamine sold under the brand names Arcalion, Enerion, and Sulbuxin is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). In France, it is used to treat symptoms of weakness or fatigue.

Why does Sulbutiamine matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sulbutiamine?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sulbutiamine.