Xenobiotic is a term used to describe chemical substances that are foreign to animal life and thus includes such examples as plant constituents, drugs, pesticides, cosmetics, flavorings, fragrances, food additives, industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants.
What do you mean by xenobiotic compounds?
A xenobiotic (Greek, xenos “foreign”; bios “life”) is a compound that is foreign to a living organism . ... A xenobiotic is a chemical substance found within an organism that is not naturally produced or expected to be present within the organism.
What are xenobiotics and their examples?
Xenobiotic is a term used to describe chemical substances that are foreign to animal life and thus includes such examples as plant constituents, drugs, pesticides, cosmetics, flavorings, fragrances, food additives, industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants.
What are the types of xenobiotics?
1.1. 1 Types of Xenobiotics. Environmental pollutants, hydrocarbons, food additives, oil mixtures, pesticides, otherxenobiotics, synthetic polymers, carcinogens, drugs, and antioxidants are the major groups of xenobiotics.
What is the main function of xenobiotic chemicals?
Metabolism of Xenobiotics
Hepatocytes (liver cells) contain xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes (XMEs). A major task of XMEs is to convert xenobiotics soluble in fat into water-soluble products and thus facilitate their elimination from the cell and excretion from the body.
Are drugs xenobiotics?
Drugs can be considered a subset of xenobiotics , that is, natural compounds of exogenous origin that may find their way into the human body. Other important classes of xenobiotics are potentially toxic plant alkaloids or fungal toxins.
Is lead a xenobiotic?
Throughout our life span, humans are also exposed to xenobiotic metals from natural and anthropogenic sources, including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.
Is alcohol a xenobiotic?
Alcohol as a Xenobiotic
Alcohol and xenobiotics share the same oxidative microsomal pathway, which involves enzymes that belong to the family of cytochrome P450. This explains the pharmacokinetic or toxic interactions between alcohol and xenobiotics.
Why xenobiotics are called recalcitrant?
But some xenobiotics are recalcitrant in nature because of various reasons. Some of them cannot be used as substrate by microbes, some cannot transport them due to absence of transporting enzymes and some are in accessible to microbes due to larger structure and insolubility.
Why are xenobiotics harmful?
Limited data showed the potential reproductive and developmental toxicity caused by swainsonine. The swainsonine caused reproductive and developmental toxicity in both parents and offspring mice. It suggests that severe reproductive toxicity and developmental toxicity are associated with swainsonine poisoning.
What are the sources of xenobiotics?
Xenobiotics in the environment
Some of the main sources of pollution and the introduction of xenobiotics into the environment come from large industries such as pharmaceuticals, fossil fuels, pulp and paper bleaching and agriculture .
What are the characteristics of xenobiotics?
Xenobiotics have been defined as chemicals to which an organism is exposed that are extrinsic to the normal metabolism of that organism . Without metabolism, many xenobiotics would reach toxic concentrations. Most metabolic activity inside the cell requires energy, cofactors, and enzymes in order to occur.
How does a xenobiotic work?
Experimental ADME and Toxicology
Xenobiotic metabolism can be defined as chemical transformation by a biological system usually via DMEs , which typically converts relatively lipophilic compounds into more readily excreted hydrophilic metabolites.
Why are xenobiotics important?
Enzymes that metabolize Xenobiotics are very important for the pharmaceutical industry as they are responsible for the breakdown of drugs . Likewise, Xenobiotic transporters also affect the duration that drugs are present in the body.
Is coffee a xenobiotic?
Yes . Xenobiotics (ie. caffeine) affect liver enzymes and this starts the clock.
