Study on drug metabolites by mass spectrometry. IV. Metabolites of 2-(diethylamino)ethyl-tetrahydro-alpha-(1-naphthylmethyl)-2-furanpropionate oxalate in rats.

Abstract

The determination of drug metabolites is very important in the biochemical field. However, the procedure for doing this has been very complicated in many cases. The major reason is because of the need for fairly large amounts of the samples. We have been studying procedures for the determination and identification by use of mass spectrometry, which usually gives a lot of information rapidly from very small amounts of the samples (below μg). In this paper, the metabolites excreted in urine and bile following oral administration of 2-(diethyamino)ethyl tetrahydro-α-(1-naphthylmethyl)-2-furanpropionate oxalate (1) in rats, were investigated by means of mass spectrometry and other techniques. The drug was not excreted unchanged in urine. Of the eight metabolites suspected to be present in urine and bile, the structures of three metabolites were elucidated to be tetrahydro-α-(1-naphthylmethyl)-2-furanpropionic acid (3) and α-(1-naphthylmethyl)-2-perhydro-5-oxofuranpropionic acid (4) in urine, and diethylaminoethanol (2) in bile. These metabolites might also be present as their structural isomers or conjugates.