Studies in detoxication

INVESTIGATIONS in progress in this Laboratory on the fate of sulphonamide drugs in the animal body indicate that these are oxidized to a small extent with the production of phenolic substances which may be excreted in conjugation with sulphuric and glucuronic acids [cf.. Shelswell & Williams, 1940; In addition to this Scudi [1940] has isolated from the urine of dogs treated with sulphapyridine, the conjugated glucuronide of a hydroxysulphapyridine. It therefore became necessary to study the fate of an aryl sulphonamide containing a phenolic hydroxyl group, since such a study might be of some help in identifying the phenolic substances occurring in urine after the ingestion of sulphanilamide and related drugs. p-Hydroxybenzenesulphonamide (hereafter called phenol-p-sulphonamide) was selected as it was easily prepared and was also the simplest compound of the type required for study. No previous study has been made of its fate in the animal body, but Buttle et al. [1936], among others, have shown that it is thera- peutically inactive.