Mercurial diuretics

Mersalyl (Mersal) is an organomercury compound and mercurial diuretic. It is only rarely used as a drug, having been superseded by thiazides and loop diuretics that are less toxic because they do not contain mercury. It features a Hg(II) centre. Mersalyl was originally adapted from calomel (Hg2Cl2), a diuretic discovered by Paracelsus.

Meralluride is a mercurial diuretic.

Chlormerodrin is a mercurial diuretic commercially traded from 1952 until 1974 that was once used to treat patients with heart failure, but is no longer in widespread use. The radiolabelled form (197Hg & 203Hg) had also been used for medical imaging of the kidney and brain and the 197Hg form was even considered a contender for 99mTc by some physicians, but was ultimately discontinued by the FDA in 1989.

Class of chemical compounds