Question

Equanil is an example of
A. Artificial sweeteners
B. Tranquilizers
C. Antihistamines
D. Antifertility drugs

Answer 1

Hint: Drugs which are used for the treatment of stress, fatigue, mild and severe mental diseases are called neurologically active drugs. They are highly selective in alleviating the delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking.

Complete step by step answer:
There are various different classes of drugs based on their therapeutic actions. There are anta- acids used when there is an increased amount of acid present in our stomach. Antihistamines interfere with the natural action of histamine by competing with it for binding sites of the receptor where histamine exerts its effect.
Just like them there is a class of neurologically active drugs which affect the message transfer mechanism from nerve to receptor, like tranquilizers and analgesics.
Tranquilizers are a class of chemical compounds used for the treatment of stress, and mild or even severe mental diseases. These relieve anxiety, stress, irritability or excitement by inducing a sense of well being. They form an essential component of sleeping pills. There are various types of tranquilizers and they function by different mechanisms. For example, noradrenaline is one of the neurotransmitters that play an important role in mood changes. If the noradrenalin level in the human body is low due to some reason, then the signal sending activities becomes low and that human will now suffer from depression. In that case that person requires antidepressant drugs.
Some tranquilizers namely, chlordiazepoxide and meprobamate, are mild tranquilizers, they are suitable for relieving tension. Equanil is used in controlling depression and hypertension.
The structure of Equanil is

So the correct option is B. Equanil is an example of tranquilizers.

Note: Derivatives of barbituric acid like luminal, amytal, Nembutal, veronal and seconal constitute an important class of tranquilizers. The derivatives of barbituric acid are known as barbiturates, these are hypnotic, that is they are sleep producing agents.