“…Although all this may merely indicate that HCO3-ions are somehow necessary for these EDA actions, since bicarbonate directly influences the affinity of GABA receptors (Kurioka et al, 1981), it is also possible that EDA must, instead, first undergo conversion to some directly GABA-mimetic compound in the presence of the bicarbonate buffer of KBC, the most likely product being the monocarbamate (EDAC) that readily forms from EDA in the presence of carbon dioxide (Jensen & Christensen, 1955;Frahn & Mills, 1964). The latter possibility is strongly supported by the observation (Curtis & Malik, 1984) that EDAC, prepared in aqueous solution from EDA by treatment with carbon dioxide, is a GABA-mimetic with a potency and speed of action comparable with that of GABA itself, in contrast to the parent diamine which is less potent and slower acting on dorsal horn cells of the cat spinal cord.…”