Furazolidone

Furazolidone is an antibacterial. It is marketed by Roberts Laboratories under the brand name Furoxone and by GlaxoSmithKline as Dependal-M.

Uses
It is used to treat diarrhoea and enteritis caused by bacteria or protozoan infections.

It has also been used in aquaculture.

Protozoan
Furazolidone is also used for giardiasis (due to Giardia lamblia), though it is not a first line treatment.

Bacterial
Furazolidone is also used to treat traveler's diarrhoea, cholera, and bacteremic salmonellosis.

As a veterinary medicine, furazolidone has been used with some success to treat salmonids for Myxobolus cerebralis infections.

Use in treating Helicobacter pylori infections has been proposed.

Mechanism
It is believed to work by crosslinking of DNA.

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 nitrofurans generally, minimum inhibitory concentrations 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.