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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1981 Dec;78(12):7764–7768. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.12.7764

Nitrate biosynthesis in man.

L C Green, K Ruiz de Luzuriaga, D A Wagner, W Rand, N Istfan, V R Young, S R Tannenbaum
PMCID: PMC349351  PMID: 6950416

Abstract

Nitrate metabolism was investigated in long-term metabolic studies in healthy young men. Under conditions of constant low ingestion of nitrate (less than 180 mumol/day per subject), the amount of nitrate excreted in urine was an average of 4-fold greater than the amount ingested. Balance studies with 15NO3- showed that the source of the excess nitrate in urine was the endogenous biosynthesis of nitrate, rather than the emptying of a body pool. Nitrate biosynthesis occurred when nitrate ingestion was high as well as low, and the amounts synthesized appeared to be independent of intake and comparable to the amounts ingested from normal diets. Analysis of the 15NO3- data also revealed that half of ingested nitrate was recovered as urinary nitrate. Because nitrate in urine is the net result of (i) intake, (ii) endogenous synthesis, and (iii) metabolic losses, the magnitude of the losses is such that, despite ongoing synthesis, the amount of nitrate in the urine of people consuming most diets will be less than the amount ingested.

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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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