The current medical literature contains many reports of studies with oral hypoglycemic agents.1-3 These substances thus far have been sulfonylurea derivatives with blood-sugar-lowering ability in certain types of diabetes. Within the last year studies were started with a new group of compounds classified as formamidinyliminoureas. These drugs are biguanides, not to be confused with the diguanidines, which include Synthalin (guanidine-deca-methylene-guanidine) (Fig. 1). They also have no structural relationship to either carbutamide or tolbutamide and have no sulfonyl radical in their formulae. Ungar et al.4 recently reported that one of these agents, phenethylformamidinyliminourea hydrochloride, was effective orally in both normal and alloxandiabetic animals. He also reported5 the uptake of glucose by a rat diaphragm preparation. Williams6 reported a hypoglycemic effect in animals, and Nielsen et al.7 stated that this hypoglycemic effect was observed in depancreatized animals. Pomeranze8 first demonstrated successful hypoglycemic effects in clinical trials with patients.
This present report is