Furazolidone is a nitrofuran

Nitrofuran

Nitrofurans are a class of drugs typically used as antibiotics or antimicrobials. The defining structural component is a furan ring with a nitro group.Members of this class of drugs include:* Furazolidone, antibacterial* Furylfuramide...

 antibacterial. It is marketed by Roberts Laboratories under the brand name Furoxone and by GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

 as Dependal-M.

Uses

It is used to treat diarrhoea and enteritis

Enteritis

In medicine, enteritis, from Greek words enteron and suffix -itis , refers to inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by the ingestion of substances contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. Symptoms include abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, dehydration and fever...

 caused by bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 or protozoa

Protozoa

Protozoa are a diverse group of single-cells eukaryotic organisms, many of which are motile. Throughout history, protozoa have been defined as single-cell protists with animal-like behavior, e.g., movement...

n infections.

It has also been used in aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...

.

Protozoan

Furazolidone is also used for giardiasis

Giardiasis

Giardiasis or beaver fever in humans is a diarrheal infection of the small intestine by a single-celled organism Giardia lamblia. Giardiasis occurs worldwide with a prevalence of 20–30% in developing countries. In the U.S., 20,000 cases are reported to the CDC annually, but the true annual...

 (due to Giardia lamblia

Giardia lamblia

Giardia lamblia is a flagellated protozoan parasite that colonizes and reproduces in the small intestine, causing giardiasis. The giardia parasite attaches to the epithelium by a ventral adhesive disc, and reproduces via binary fission...

), though it is not a first line treatment.

Bacterial

Furazolidone is also used to treat traveler's diarrhoea, cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

, and bacteremic salmonellosis

Salmonella

Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which grade in all directions . They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction...

.

As a veterinary medicine

Veterinary medicine

Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...

, furazolidone has been used with some success to treat salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

ids for Myxobolus cerebralis

Myxobolus cerebralis

Myxobolus cerebralis is a myxosporean parasite of salmonids that causes whirling disease in farmed salmon and trout and also in wild fish populations...

infections.

Use in treating Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori , previously named Campylobacter pyloridis, is a Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacterium found in the stomach. It was identified in 1982 by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who found that it was present in patients with chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers, conditions that were...

infections has been proposed.

Side effects

Furazolidone is no longer available in the US. Though an effective antibiotic when all others fail, against extremely drug resistant infections, it has many side effects, and as with other nitrofuran

Nitrofuran

Nitrofurans are a class of drugs typically used as antibiotics or antimicrobials. The defining structural component is a furan ring with a nitro group.Members of this class of drugs include:* Furazolidone, antibacterial* Furylfuramide...

s generally, minimum inhibitory concentration

Minimum inhibitory concentration

In microbiology, minimum inhibitory concentration is the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial that will inhibit the visible growth of a microorganism after overnight incubation. Minimum inhibitory concentrations are important in diagnostic laboratories to confirm resistance of microorganisms...

s also produce systemic toxicity (tremors, convulsions, peripheral neuritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, depression of spermatogenesis.) Nitrofurans are recognized by FDA as mutagens/carcinogens, and can no longer be used since 1991.