Prodrug not its intended target. This reduces adverse or unintended effects of a drug, especially important in treatments like chemotherapy, which can have severe unintended and undesirable side effects. Many herbal extracts historically used in medicine contain glycosides (sugar derivatives) of the active agent, which are hydrolyzed in the intestines to release the active and more bioavailable aglycone. For example, salicin is a β-D-glucopyranoside that is cleaved by esterases to release salicylic acid. Aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid, first made by Felix Hoffmann at Bayer in 1897, is a synthetic prodrug of salicylic acid. However, in other cases, such as codeine and morphine,
Pamoic acid Pamoic acid Pamoic acid, also called embonic acid, is a naphthoic acid derivative. Salts and esters of pamoic acid are known as pamoates or embonates. It can be prepared by the reaction of 2-hydroxy-3-naphthoic acid with formaldehyde. In pharmacology, the salt form of pamoic acid (pamoate ion) can be used as a counterion of a drug compound to affect the dissolution rate of the drug. The presence of multiple oxygen atoms enables significant hydrogen bonding to occur. Hydrogen bonds facilitate the dissolution of compounds in water. Pharmaceutical drugs formulated this way include cycloguanil pamoate, hydroxyzine pamoate, imipramine pamoate, olanzapine pamoate