Jl. Maggs et al., THE RAT BILIARY METABOLITES OF DIHYDROARTEMISININ, AN ANTIMALARIAL ENDOPEROXIDE, Drug metabolism and disposition, 25(10), 1997, pp. 1200-1204
[13-C-14]Dihydroartemisinin was administered to male rats (35 mu mol k
g(-1), iv). Within 0-1 hr and 0-5 hr of dosing, 34.8 +/- 5.2% (mean +/
- SD, N = 6) and 48.4 +/- 5.9% of the radiolabel, respectively, was re
covered in bile. Only 1.1 +/- 1.2% was recovered in bladder urine afte
r 5 hr. The biliary metabolites were identified by LC/MS. The principa
l metabolite (21.1 +/- 9.3% of dose) was the biologically inactive dih
ydroartemisinin (DHA) glucuronide. The other metabolites were products
of reductive cleavage and rearrangement of the endoperoxide bridge, a
process known to generate reactive radical intermediates and abolish
antimalarial activity. They were desoxy-DHA (3.3 +/- 2.0%) and its glu
curonide (1.1 +/- 1.0%), 3-hydroxydesoxy-DHA glucuronide (2.9 +/- 1.8%
), and the glucuronide of a ring-contracted tetrahydrofuran acetate is
omer of DHA (6.9 +/- 5.6%).