Little is known about the metabolism of a
cetyleni
c (C
C)
compounds
commonly used in theformulation of pesti
cides. To better understand the in vivo rea
ctivity of this bond, we examined themetabolism of propargyl al
cohol (PA), 2-propyn-1-ol, used extensively in the
chemi
cal industry. [1,2,3-
13C, 2,3-
14C]PA was administered orally to male Sprague-Dawley rats. Approximately 56% of thedose was ex
creted in urine by 96 h. Ma
jor metabolites were
chara
cterized, dire
ctly, in the wholeurine by one- and two-dimensional
13C NMR. To determine the
complete stru
ctures of metabolitesof PA, rat urine was also sub
je
cted to TLC followed by purifi
cation of separated TLC bands onHPLC. The purified metabolites were identified by
13C NMR and mass spe
ctrometry and by
comparison with available syntheti
c standards. The proposed metaboli
c pathway involves oxidationof propargyl al
cohol to 2-propynoi
c a
cid and further detoxifi
cation via glutathione
con
jugation toyield as final produ
cts: 3,3-bis[(2-(a
cetylamino)-2-
carboxyethyl)thio]-1-propanol, 3-(
carboxymethylthio)-2-propenoi
c a
cid, 3-(methylsulfinyl)-2-(methylthio)-2-propenoi
c a
cid, 3-[[2-(a
cetylamino)-2-
carboxyethyl]thio]-3-[(2-amino-2-
carboxyethyl)thio]-1-propanol and 3-[[2-(a
cetylamino)-2-
carboxyethyl]sulfinyl]-3-[2-(a
cetylamino)-2-
carboxyethyl]thio]-1-propanol. These unique metabolites havenot been reported previously and represent the first example of multiple glutathione additions tothe
carbon-
carbon triple bond.Keywords: Propargyl al
cohol metabolism; metabolism of
carbon-
carbon triple bond; di
cysteinyl
con
jugates; 2-propyn-1-ol