Jsj,
A purple and grey gelatin medication capsule is most likely to be
cefaclor 500mg, a cephalosporin antibiotic. Since it is not marked
with the easily-identifiable markings of a major brand-name
manufacturer, this is probably a generic. "ST-3EF" likely represents
the manufacturer and their code for the product.
Please keep in mind that capsule colour coding, while fairly standard,
is not absolute. The FDA in the U.S. mandates that drugs must have a
unique appearance in order to avoid confusion, but other countries may
not always follow the scheme. Also, purveyors of illicit narcotics may
remove the contents of legitimate (and usually inexpensive)
medications and replace them with other substances for the purpose of
smuggling or avoiding prosecution. If these have been out of your
control, it is possible that they do not contain the substance
indicated by the capsule markings.
The patent has expired on cefaclor, meaning that anyone can
manufacture it. Since this medication is being produced worldwide by
many manufacturers, there is no way of identifying the manufacturer
precisely without more information:
From what country were these purchased, or else in what country are you now?
How old are the capsules? Can you guess if you don't know?
It is possible these were purchased for veterinary use?
While it is probably an extremely poor idea to do anything with these
capsules other than dispose of them properly, there may be any number
of reasons to identify them prior to doing so. Perhaps you found them
in a space you share with a loved one and you are concerned about a
possible drug addiction. In that case, you might wish to avoid the
embarrassment of asking the person involved about them in case they
turned out to be innocuous. Perhaps you have seen these but they are
not in your posession, so you cannot take them to a physician or
pharmacist. I can think of many other legitimate reasons to request
this information on Google Answers.
In any case, please do not take the advice of politicalguru and simply
throw them away. They need to be disposed of properly. If they do turn
out to be cefaclor, this antibiotic can contaminate drinking water,
interfere with normal soil and/or septic tank bacteria, and create
antibiotic resistant microorganisms in the environment. This is
already a huge problem, and it is getting worse. Here is some advice
from Health Canada on how to dispose of old medications:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/iyh/medical/med_disposal.html
Hope this helps.
Alan Kali |
