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Abstract

Drugs and other environmental chemicals and their metabolic transformation products are usually eliminated from the body by excretion in the urine or bile or sometimes both. Rarely, depending upon the substance, other pathways may be used such as the expired air, sweat, saliva or milk. The role of the bile in the excretion of products of intermediary metabolism (e.g. the bile salts, bilirubin, steroid and thyroid hormones) has long been known. Recent studies suggest that this role may be greater than hitherto appreciated, since cyanocobalamin, vitamin D, a-tocopherol and porphyrins and their metabolites have also been shown to be extensively excreted in bile. Similarly the role of bile in the excretion of foreign chemicals has only in recent years become more widely recognized. Thus, bile can be important in the elimination of naturally occurring substances such as chlorophyll which normally enters the body via the diet as well as many of the synthetic organic compounds encountered such as drugs, food additives and pesticides.

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Smith, R.L. (1971). Excretion of Drugs in Bile. In: Brodie, B.B., Gillette, J.R., Ackerman, H.S. (eds) Concepts in Biochemical Pharmacology. Handbuch der experimentellen Pharmakologie/Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 28 / 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65052-9_19

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