Abstract:
MERCAPTURIC ACIDS
Although many years have passed since Baumann and Preusse (1879) and Jaffe’(1879) described experiments demonstrating that the halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons bromobenzene and chlorobenzene were excreted by some vertebrates as unstable N-acetyl cysteine derivatives, it is only recently that the enzymatic steps of this transformation have been elucidated and the natures of the intermediates involved determined. The mercapturic acids, as these excreted derivatives are called, have, compared with their precursors, greatly increased water solubilities and are thus easily eliminated in the urine and bile of animals and form a major class of detoxication products. In general, aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated and nitrated aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated and nitrated aliphatic hydrocarbons, pyridine and quinoline N-oxides, aromatic amines, alkyl sulphonates and carbamates are metabolised to mercapturic acid derivatives by many organisms.
