# 3-(a-acetonylbenzyl)-4-hydroxycoumarin

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-a-acetonylbenzyl-4-hydroxycoumarin/97074>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 5, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-a-acetonylbenzyl-4-hydroxycoumarin/97074 "2001-12-05T19:20:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3-a-acetonylbenzyl-4-hydroxycoumarin/97074/1 "2001-12-05T19:20:49Z")

</div>

known as warfarin and sold as Coumadin. Cecil’s column this week (not yet on the web)states that a 1983 article in \* FDA Consumer \* states “there has been no indicaion that coumarin [the generic name of the chemical from which it has been derived] itself produces this blood-thinning effect in humans.” [Under the name warfarin it is used to poison rats by causing internal bleeding.]

Cecil continues that a young woman who drank copious amounts of a home-brew tea contining coumarin suffered abnormal menstrual bleeding.

All that may be well and true, but he should have noted that warfarin (Coumadin) is a well established anticoagulant now. It acts by inhibiting the synthesis of vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors. The resultant effect is a sequential depression of Factors VII, IX, X and XI.