Meyer-Overton correlation for anesthetics

 

 

anethetic potency is related to lipid solubility in his article entitled 'Zur Theroier der Alkoholarkose'

 

Meyer compared the potency of many agents, defined as the reciprocal of the molar concentration required to induce anaesthesia in tadpoles, with their olive oil/water partition coefficient. He found a nearly linear relationship between potency and the partition coefficient for many types of anaesthetic molecules such asalcohols, aldehydes, ketones, ethers, and esters. The anaesthetic concentration required to induce anaesthesia in 50% of a population of animals (the EC₅₀) was independent of the means by which the anaesthetic was delivered, i.e., the gas or aqueous phase

 

 

This correaltion was interpreted as meaning that anesthetics acted by dissolving in the lipid bilayer of nerve membrances and modifying their properties.