mannitol Chem.
(ˈmænɪtɒl)
[f. mannite + -ol.]
A sweet crystalline hexahydric alcohol, CH2OH(CHOH)4CH2OH, known in three optically isomeric forms, which is found in many plants (such as sugar cane, celery, and larch) and is used in aqueous solution in kidney function tests. Now the usual name for mannite.
| 1879 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XXXVI. 1034 Mannityl-hexsulphuric acid is obtained as an uncrystallisable liquid by dissolving mannitol in sulphuric monochloride. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 721/1 Mannitol is proved to be a hexhydric alcohol, C6H8(OH)6, by its conversion into a hexanitrate. 1939 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. LXI. 761/2 To prepare the l-glyceraldehyde in an analogous way from l-mannitol was much more difficult, since the l-mannitol..is not yet obtainable commercially. 1951 A. Grollman Pharmacol. & Therapeutics xxxii. 750 Mannitol, a hexahydric alcohol sugar is filtered through the glomeruli but is neither reabsorbed nor excreted by the tubules. 1957 Technology July 187/2 Mannitol, which also comes from seaweed, is used by the chemical, explosive, pharmaceutical and electrical industries. 1970 H. McLeave Question of Negligence (1973) xxvii. 208 ‘Intravenous saline and mannitol,’ he murmured. His registrar injected the drug to shrink the brain and relieve the compression. |