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The History of Nitroglycerin, an Explosive with Medical Benefits

  • Writer: FibonacciMD
    FibonacciMD
  • Apr 16
  • 5 min read

Updated: Apr 16



nitroglycerine

Nitroglycerin the Explosive

An Italian chemist named Ascanio Sobrero while synthesizing substances such as guncotton, a smokeless gunpowder, created the explosive nitroglycerin (NTG) by adding glycerol to a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids. In 1847 he gave a lecture at the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino where he discussed his discovery and detonated a small amount of material. He also apparently tasted the new substance which he described as sweet, pungent, and aromatic and advised precaution as a very small amount he put on his tongue to taste produced a severe headache lasting several hours.


Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist who recognized the potential of nitroglycerin and started experimenting with it. The issue with nitroglycerin was that it was unstable and could explode unexpectedly. In 1862 Nobel built a factory to produce nitroglycerin. In 1863 he developed a detonator which contained black powder which when ignited could detonate the nitroglycerin. In 1864 a nitroglycerin explosion in Noble’s factory killed his younger brother and several others. In 1865 Nobel created the blasting cap, an improved detonator which was a metal cap containing mercury fulminate that can be ignited by either electric current, spark or flame. 


By chance Nobel discovered that mixing nitroglycerin with kieselguhr stabilized the nitroglycerin in a paste and made it much safer to use. Kieselguhr is a soft sedimentary rock composed mostly of silica(SiO2). He called his new discovery dynamite, from the Greek word dunamis, meaning power. After patenting dynamite and due to its extensive use in construction, Alfred Noble became a very wealthy man. When he died, he left the bulk of his fortune to reward people who had used their intellect to benefit humanity and created the Nobel Prize. 

Medical use of Nitroglycerin

In 1849, a homeopathic physician, Constantin Hering, tried to duplicate Ascanio Sobrero’s experience of tasting nitroglycerin and gave it to volunteers, all of whom developed headaches. He thought that a substance that could cause headaches so consistently must be important medically. He renamed it glonoine as it contained gl(ycerol),o(xygen),n(itrogen), and o(xides,) and started including it in some homeopathic remedies. 


It had been noted that workers who produced NTG were subject to various diseases. One was called “Monday disease.”  When new workers began work in a NTG factory they were subject to headaches and dizziness which ended after a short period as they developed tolerance to the NTG.  However, as the tolerance was short-lived, after a weekend off, on Monday when they returned to work, some developed symptoms again. It was not uncommon for workers to take some NTG home or rub it on their clothing to continue to get exposure over the weekend to prevent “Monday disease.” 


There was also the “Sunday heart attack” which occurred in some NTG factory workers. Withdrawal of NTG exposure over a weekend occasionally resulted in a rebound phenomenon where arteries, chronically dilated from the NTG, went into spasm, and caused reduced blood flow to the heart due to acute NTG withdrawal. Finally, NTG workers with angina pectoris (chest pain or constriction from lack of sufficient blood flow to the heart) were noted to have improved symptoms during the week which might get worse on weekends.


However, it was not until 1858 that the medical profession started showing interest in NTG when a British physician, Alfred Field, reported he had used nitroglycerin in a 68-year-old woman with chest pain. In 1867 Thomas Lauder Brunton, a Scottish-born physician, experimented with substances to treat angina patients and wrote in the journal Lancet of the successful use of amyl nitrite as a treatment for angina. In 1876 realizing that NTG had a similar action to amyl nitrite, he took it himself and developed such a bad headache he hesitated to give it to his patients. William Murrell, a London physician, was the first to use NTG as a regular treatment for angina in 1878. It was already known that amyl nitrite could reduce anginal symptoms and Murell observed that amyl nitrite only provided a few seconds of relief from anginal chest pain while with NTG, relief lasted nearly an hour. He noted that patients with angina given NTG improved, and it could also cut short an attack.


Within four years after Murrell started using NTG, it was widely hailed in the medical community as an effective treatment for angina pectoris. As the NTG used at the time was a liquid and somewhat inconvenient to use, Murell had a chemist synthesize a dose of NTG in a small amount of chocolate that could be carried around and dosed by taking little nibbles of the chocolate-NTG mixture until symptoms improved. The very small amounts of nitroglycerin used in medications were not an explosion hazard. 

It was known that NTG could decrease blood pressure due to its vasodilatory effect, but it was not until later on that it was learned that it also caused coronary vasodilation and improved blood flow to the heart. NTG works by being converted to nitric oxide which simulates receptors that lead to arterial vasodilatation. Ironically, in 1998 the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology was given to scientists for work on “Nitric Oxide as a Signaling Molecule in the Cardiovascular System”. 


In another twist of fate, later in life Alfred Nobel was himself prescribed NTG for a heart condition. He wrote “isn’t it the irony of fate that I have been prescribed NG1 [nitroglycerin] to be taken internally! They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the chemist and the public.” 


NTG ointment has also been used to treat anal fissures as nitric oxide can cause relaxation of the internal anal muscle sphincter.


Comments:

The discovery of NTG led to the creation of dynamite which was used to help build roads, tunnels, railways, and canals among other construction projects. Money made from selling dynamite allowed Alfred Nobel to create the Nobel Prize, which today is still one of the most prestigious awards in the world. 


Fortuitously, NTG was also found to be an effective immediate treatment for myocardial ischemia causing angina pectoris and it is still used by patients and in hospitals to this day for that purpose.





References: 

Marsh N, Marsha A. Short History of Nitroglycerine and Nitric Oxide In Pharmacology and Physiology. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology (2000) 27, 313–319. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10779131/

Alfred Nobel. Britannica. Last Updated: Mar 28, 2025. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Nobel

Ignarro LJ. After 130 years, the molecular mechanism of action of nitroglycerin is revealed. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002;99(12):7816-7817. Retrieved from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC122975/

Gorfine SR. Topical Nitroglycerin Therapy for Anal Fissures and Ulcers. New England Journal of Medicine. 10/26/1995,Retrieved from: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199510263331718

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