Abstract-Papaverine(Pap) inhibited a tonic tension development in guinea pig taenia coli induced by an elevation of the potassium concentration of the medium to 40 mM The potassium ion is known as a non-selective stimulant for various smooth muscle.The K-contracture of taenia coli showed different metabolic dependences, even in the same K medium, depending on whether the recording was isotonic or isometric (1, 2). In isometric recordings, the K-contracture showed different shapes, metabolic dependencies and Ca move ments varying with the Na-K ratio of the medium and/or the degree of depolarization (3-6).Papaverine (Pap) is well known as a non-selective relaxant of smooth muscle. Pap at 2.5,/'% 10-s M, selectively inhibited the tonic contraction without affecting the phasic one in various types of K-contractures of taenia coli which were induced by 40-K or when high-K was completely substituted for Na, under isometric or isotonic recordings (7-9). Pap possibly induces a dissociation between the electrical and mechanical activity of smooth muscle, both in spontaneously active preparations and in high-K medium (7, 10). The relaxant effect is independent of a direct inhibitory effect on the contractile machinery (11).