Coumarin is now known to be present in many plants, and produces the lovely sweet smell of freshly cut grass or hay and plants like sweet grass; in fact, the plant's high content of coumarin is responsible for the original common name of "sweet clover", which is named for its sweet smell, not its bitter taste. They are present notably in woodruff and at lower levels in licorice, lavender, and various other species. However, coumarins themselves do not influence clotting or warfarin-like action, but must first be metabolized by various fungi into compounds such as 4-hydroxycoumarin, then further (in the presence of naturally occurring formaldehyde) into dicoumarol, in order to have any anticoagulant properties. Warfarin is a synthetic derivative of dicoumarol, a 4-hydroxycoumarin-derived mycotoxin anticoagulant originally discovered in spoiled sweet clover-based animal feeds
GROSS. Did you see the words fungi and formaldehyde? Why am I taking this?
In 1948 it was used as a pesticide against rats and mice and is still used for that, but the rats have built up a tolerance to it so they use other pesticides. It would cause the pests (oh I HATE mice) to bleed to death. Usually internally from some sort of illness. What a horrible thing to do. (Don't worry, I still HATE mice.)
International normalized ratio (INR) is a test they do to check how quickly the blood clots so they can manage my dosage of Warfarin. They poke my finger and let a drop fall onto a little circle on the machine, it has to be just right or it won't work. Depending on the nurse, I usually have to have my finger poked over and over. I would rather have blood drawn than my finger poked. :(
The foods that interact with it: Ginger, garlic and vitamin K1- (Green vegetables). I can have a little but not a lot. I like my green veggies and garlic.
After an incident in 1951, where a US Army inductee unsuccessfully attempted suicide with multiple doses of warfarin in rodenticide and recovered fully after going to a hospital, and being treated with vitamin K (by then known as a specific antidote) studies began in the use of warfarin as a therapeutic anticoagulant. It was found to be generally superior to dicoumarol, and in 1954 was approved for medical use in humans. An early recipient of warfarin was US president Dwight Eisenhower, who was prescribed the drug after having a heart attack in 1955.
A theory published in 2003 posts that Lavrenty Beria, Nikita Khrushchev and others conspired to use warfarin to poison the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Warfarin is tasteless and colorless, and produces symptoms similar to those that Stalin exhibited.
