The Biological Oxidation of Aromatic Heterocyclic Amines

Abstract

1. Heterocyclic aromatic amines occur in many drugs and foreign compounds, as well as products of intermediary metabolism. 2. Heterocyclic aromatic amine oxides occur naturally in plants, fungi and other micro-organisms but are rare in mammalian systems. 3. Very few xenobiotics have been reported to form heterocyclic aromatic amine oxides and the mechanism of their formation is not at present understood. 4. The reduction of heterocyclic aromatic amine oxides to the parent amine occurs with many biological systems.