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Abstract
The antimuscarinic activity of optical isomers of tropicamide were compared on the isolated rabbit iris sphincter. The increasing concentrations of both the (--)- and (+)-isomer shifted the dose-response curve of carbachol to the right in a parallel fashion. The competitive reversible muscarinic blocking effects of both isomers were confirmed by pA2 plots. The pA2 values from the nonpigmented irides for (--)- and (+)-tropicamide were 7.88 and 6.18, respectively. Thus the (+)-isomer has only 1/50 the blocking activity of the (--)-isomer. Although both isomers are slightly less active in the pigmented iris, the activity difference between the isomers was high. From the nonpigmented iris, the blocking effect of the active (--)-tropicamide was readily reversed by washing, whereas reversal of this isomer's effect from the pigmented iris was relatively slow.