Conjugation of foreign compounds in the elephant and hyaena

Abstract

Little is known about the metabolism of foreign compounds in exotic animals. French et al. [ 1 ] have examined lions, genets and civets and Ette et al. [2] and Idle et al. [3] have studied the Indian fruit bat. In this paper we report some observations made on the African elephant (Loxodonta) and the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocutu). There is a report in the literature that the elephant (Indian?) forms hippuric acid [4], but no data seems to have been obtained on the hyaena. In this work it will be shown that like most species of mammals, the African elephant converts benzoic and phenylacetic acid into their glycine conjugates and phenol into its sulphate and glucuronic acid conjugates. In the case of the hyaena phenol, at a level of 10 mg/ kg, forms only sulphate conjugates and is thus similar to the cat, lion, civet and genet and also the caracal [5]. The hyaena also does not acetylate the aromatic amino group of sulphadimethoxine and is in this respect like the domestic dog [6] rather than the cats which acetylate the drug [ 1 ] . The hyaena, however, converts phenylacetic acid to phenacetylglycine like many other species. 1-Naphthylacetic acid is conjugated in the hyaena mainly with glycine and to a lesser extent with taurine as it is in both the cat [7] and the dog [8], but there is also a substantial glucuronide conjugation of this acid in the hyaena which does not occur in the cat [7] and only slightly in the dog 181. 2. Experimental