Some observations on volatile fatty acids in the sheep's rumen

作者：E. F. Annison · 发表于：Biochemical Journal · 年份：1954 · DOI：10.1042/bj0570400 · 被引用次数：145 · 研究领域：Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology、Meat and Animal Product Quality

not appreciably affected by temperature.Most of the material given was eliminated in the first few days after dosing, but small amounts continued to be excreted for several weeks.Even with the much smaller quantities eliminated on these later days, about half was still unconjugated.The reduction of the nitro group inp-nitrobenzoic acid which was observed indicates the presence of another possible detoxication mechanism in locusts, since reduction of nitro groups often lowers toxicity (cf.Smith et al. 1953).This reduction is not un- expected since Dennel (1949) has observed that insect blood has a low redox potential.The formation of hippuric acids in the locust is interesting in connexion with the comparative biochemistry of nitrogen metabolism.Locusts differ from the common experimental animals in that uric acid is a major end-product of their nitrogen metabolism (Chauvin, 1941).The hen, which also eliminates most of its nitrogen as uric acid, uses ornithine for the detoxication of aromatic acids, and it is sometimes suggested (Quick, 1948; Baldwin, 1948) that other animals with uricotelic metabolism, such as reptiles, may also form orni- thuric acids.The only reptile which appears to have been studied is a turtle, which produced hippuric acids (Komori & Sendyu, 1926), but it was not stated whether this turtle had a ureotelic or uricotelic metabolism (cf.Baldwin, 1952).The present work suggests that there may be no general connexion between uric acid production and the use o...