Heparinoid

**Heparinoid** is a pharmacological concept used to designate medicines containing the active component, which is heparin, a direct anticoagulant obtained from snakes. Not a trivial chemical compound; the chemical structure has not been studied and is most likely heterogeneous (probably due to the addition of carbohydrate structures to heparin). This determines the biological activity and the lack of structural similarity to hormones; for the same reason it does not have the status of a medicinal product.