Detoxication
Encyclopedia
Detoxication products are the major metabolites formed from most drug metabolism
Drug metabolism
Drug metabolism is the biochemical modification of pharmaceutical substances by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. This is a form of xenobiotic metabolism. Drug metabolism often converts lipophilic chemical compounds into more readily excreted polar products...

.
There are two common patterns observed:
  1. A drug with potent pharmacological activity is converted to a major metabolite with markedly reduced or no pharmacological activity (e.g., Pentobarbital
    Pentobarbital
    Pentobarbital is a short-acting barbiturate that was first synthesized in 1928. Pentobarbital is available as both a free acid and a sodium salt, the former of which is only slightly soluble in water and ethanol....

     and Hydroxypentobarbital)
  2. A drug is converted to a metabolite with roughly equivalent or slightly lower pharmacological activity.


Detoxication differs from detoxification. Detoxification is the process of removing toxins from the body, while detoxication is the process of preventing toxic entities from entering the body in the first place. Detoxication occurs in the liver and kidneys, through biotransformation: a series of chemical alterations of a compound (e.g., a drug) occurring within the body, as by enzymatic activity. Often this occurs as conjugation with a polar compound making it less toxic and or easier to excrete.
Example of detoxification are: Administration of chelators for heavy metal poisoning, hyperbaric oxygen treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs after enough inhalation of carbon monoxide . Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect...

and treatment of ethylene glycol poisoning with ethanol.
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