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Modification of the Action of Caffeine on the Spontaneous Activity of the White Rat by the Concomitant Administration of Various Food Materials^1,2,

Seven Figures

Department of Physiology, Emory University, Emory University, Georgia

1. The modification of the action of caffeine by sucrose is not specific to this food material but is shared by foods of an entirely different nature, namely, protein and fat.

2. It is not due to an interference with absorption for, as shown in experiments 3 and 4, the effect was observed when caffeine was injected intraperitoneally and also when sugar was given after caffeine had been absorbed and had produced its characteristic action.

3. It cannot be accounted for by the mere presence of other material regardless of its nature in the gastro-intestinal tract, for agar administered simultaneously with caffeine had no neutralizing action.

In respect to the lethal dose of caffeine our results differ from those of Schulte and his associates ('39). A dose of 40 mg caffeine/kg proved fatal in 1 of their 10 animals. Since 10 mg/kg sufficed to increase spontaneous activity it was concluded that the margin of safety between the barely effective and the convulsive or fatal dose was 4 times. In the experiments reported in this paper and in numerous other experiments we have administered 75 mg caffeine/kg over 9000 times to 145 different rats without a single fatality.

² The expense of this investigation was defrayed in large part by a grant-in-aid from the Sugar Research Foundation.

³ Present address: Parke-Davis Co., Detroit, Michigan.

Manuscript received 23 June 1947.