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. 1975 Jan;29(1):7–12. doi: 10.1128/am.29.1.7-12.1975

Degradation of N-Nitrosamines by Intestinal Bacteria

I R Rowland 1, P Grasso 1
PMCID: PMC186900  PMID: 803287

Abstract

A major proportion of bacterial types, common in the gastrointestinal tract of many animals and man, were active in degrading diphenylnitrosamine and dimethylnitrosamine, the former being degraded more rapidly than the latter. At low nitrosamine concentrations (<0.05 μmol/ml), approximately 55% of added diphenylnitrosamine, 30% of N-nitrosopyrrolidine, and 4% of dimethylnitrosamine were degraded. The route of nitrosamine metabolism by bacteria appears to be different from that proposed for breakdown by mammalian enzyme systems in that carbon dioxide and formate were not produced. In bacteria, the nitrosamines were converted to the parent amine and nitrite ion and, in addition, certain unidentified volatile metabolites were produced from dimethylnitrosamine by bacteria. The importance of bacteria in reducing the potential hazard to man of nitrosamines is discussed.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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