Hydrazine sulfate

Hydrazine sulfate, more properly hydrazonium hydrogensulfate, is a salt of the cation hydrazinium and the anion bisulfate (hydrogensulfate), with the formula or N2H6SO4. It is a white, water-soluble solid at room temperature. Hydrazine sulfate, more properly hydrazonium hydrogensulfate, is a salt of the cation hydrazinium and the anion bisulfate (hydrogensulfate), with the formula or N2H6SO4. It is a white, water-soluble solid at room temperature. Hydrazine sulfate has a number of uses in chemical laboratories and in the chemical industry, including analytical chemistry and the synthesis of organic compounds. In those uses it is usually preferred to pure hydrazine, because it is not volatile and is less susceptible to atmospheric oxidation on storage. The compound can be prepared by treating an aqueous solution of hydrazine (N2H4) with sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Besides its general use as a safe source of hydrazine, the compound is used as a catalyst in making fibers out of acetate, in the analysis and synthesis of minerals, and testing for arsenic in metals. Hydrazine sulfate can be used as a fungicide and antiseptic. Hydrazine sulfate has been used as an alternative medical treatment for the loss of appetite (anorexia) and rapid weight loss (cachexia), which are often associated with cancer. Although it has been marketed as a dietary supplement, Hydrazine sulfate has never been approved in the United States as safe and effective in treating any medical condition Hydrazine sulfate was first proposed as an anti-cancer agent by U.S. physician Joseph Gold in the mid-1970s. Gold's arguments were based on the fact that cancer cells are often unusually dependent on glycolysis for energy (the Warburg effect). Gold proposed that the body might offset this increased glycolysis using gluconeogenesis, which is the pathway that is the reverse of glycolysis. Since this process would require a great deal of energy, Gold thought that inhibiting gluconeogenesis might reverse this energy requirement and be an effective treatment for cancer cachexia. Hydrazine is a reactive chemical that in the test tube can inactivate one of the enzymes needed for gluconeogenesis, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEP-CK). It was also postulated that if tumor energy gain (glycolysis) and host-energy loss (gluconeogenesis) were functionally interrelated, inhibition of gluconeogenesis at PEP CK could result in actual tumor regression in addition to reversal or arrest of cancer cachexia. In this model, hydrazine sulfate is therefore thought to act by irreversibly inhibiting the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. The use of hydrazine sulfate as a cancer remedy was popularized by the magazine Penthouse in the mid-1990s, when Kathy Keeton, wife and business partner of the magazine's publisher Bob Guccione, used it in an attempt to treat her metastatic breast cancer. Alternative medicine nutritionist Gary Null wrote three of the articles about alternative cancer treatments, including one titled 'The Great Cancer Fraud.' Keeton (until her death in 1997) and other supporters of hydrazine sulfate treatment accused the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) of deliberately hiding the beneficial effects of the compound, and threatened to launch a class action lawsuit. The NCI denied the claims, and says that there is little to no evidence that hydrazine sulfate has any beneficial effects whatsoever. The position of the NCI was supported by an inquiry held by the General Accounting Office.