hirudine

Latin hirūdō (“leech”)

hirudine (comparative more hirudine, superlative most hirudine)

1. (zoology) Of or relating to the leeches.
   • 1933, Eugene Földes, A New Approach to Dietetic Therapy, page 196:

     Other factors may contribute to the development of a hirudine constitution by causing primarily a decrease in the water and mineral content of the body.

hirudine (usually uncountable, plural hirudines)

1. Alternative form of hirudin
   • 1912, E. Weill, C. Nouriquand, “Secondary Hemorrhage Following the Application of Leeches”, in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, volume 143, page 130:

     Weill and Nouriquand conclude that under certain conditions hemorrhage may develop after leech applications in consequenc of a hemophilia due to hirudine. Investigations have been made showing that hirudine is a nucleoproteid, which they hope to demonstrate in the blood of such patients.

   • 1921, Joseph S. Hepburn, “Mechanism of the anticoagulating action of hirudine”, in Chemical Abstracts, volume 15, numbers 13-18, page 2449:

     The antagonistic action of hirudine may be exerted at several stages of the coagulation of the blood. Hirudine can retard indefinitely the transformation of proserozyme into serozyme, can markedly retard the reaction between serozyme and cytozyme which produces thrombin, and can function as an antithrombin and neutralize the thrombin when the latter is formed.

hirūdine

1. ablative singular of hirūdō