ARSPHENAMINE

early chemotherapeutic drug, an arsenical (chemical agent containing arsenic) that was discovered by the founder of chemotherapy, the German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, and was marketed by him under the trade name Salvarsan. First prepared by Ehrlich in 1909, arsphenamine was the most effective drug for the treatment of syphilis until the discovery of the antibiotic penicillin in 1928. It has since been completely replaced in medicine by numerous other drugs less toxic to the human body.