Every day people are influenced by various chemical elements, also known as xenobiotics, which get into the organism through lungs, skin, and the digestive tract with air, food, drinks, or medicines (Denali, 2015). Some xenobiotics do not impact the human body, while most of them cause chemical reactions.
As a rule, these chemical elements entering into the organism become transformed when contacting the biological elements inside the body, such as ferments. This process of change is called “biotransformation,” and its main goal is to reduce the activity of xenobiotics. Biotransformation influences the concentration of intoxicating compounds in the organism, as well as the duration of their presence in the body tissues (Biotransformation of xenobiotics, n.d.).
Before xenobiotics are neutralized and eliminated from the organism, they pass through two stages of biotransformation: modification (i.e., chemical restructuring of the element) and conjugation (i.e., when the xenobiotic connects to the body molecules) (Biotransformation of xenobiotics, n.d.). Different xenobiotics pass through these processes with different speed depending on their properties including solubility, i.e., the ability to interact with other substances, e.g., water and fat. Moreover, such factors as age, genetics, diet, and others may affect the duration of biotransformation.
References
Biotransformation of xenobiotics. (n.d.). Web.
Denali, L. L. (2015). 6200 M2 toxicology [Video file]. Web.