Structural identification of metabolites and degradation products is a critical
part of any study of the fate of a candidate molecule in biotic or abiotic test
systems, and ultimately is highly significant for human and environmental risk
assessments.
For veterinary medicines, it is particularly important to know the identity
of metabolites in the edible tissues, milk or eggs from food-producing animals.
They may be chosen as the marker residue or included in a residue analytical
method with the parent substance. By comparison with metabolites formed in laboratory
animal (rat) metabolism studies, it can be judged whether the toxicity of any
metabolites has been adequately assessed by toxicology studies conducted with
the parent active substance.
It can also be important to identify excretory metabolites as they may pose
a risk to the environment. Where a risk assessment has triggered environmental
fate studies with the veterinary medicine, it will be important to identify
metabolites formed in these studies.
Metabolites are usually present in biological or environmental samples at very
low concentrations where they can be mixed with a huge variety of endogenous
substances. This presents a major challenge to scientists and equipment to separate
metabolites in sufficient quantity and purity for examination.
- At HLS, we have been identifying xenobiotic metabolites for more than 30
years
- We have studied a huge variety of test substances
- We have a team of experienced mass spectroscopists dedicated to metabolite
identification
- We have the most advanced Liquid Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry combinations
available for metabolite identification -including Q-TOF Micro MS system with
UPLC
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