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You might have heard that drugs such as antibiotics are not produced by the human body itself. But what exactly are these chemical substances called? Well, they are known as Xenobiotics. The term might sound complicated, so let’s split it up to discover its meaning. The Greek word xenos means foreigner while bios means life. Interestingly, this is where the word also gets its definition from. A xenobiotic is a foreign chemical substance found within an organism that is not normally naturally produced by or expected to be present within it. Moreover, they do not occur naturally, so they are foreign to the biosphere.
But why is the study of xenobiotics important to us? To answer this question, let’s understand the chemistry behind these chemicals...
A large number of foreign substances are destroyed by oxidation in the body, for example, methanol is oxidised to formic acid. Many reactions like these occur within our bodies everyday. Isn’t this fascinating? On the other hand, reduction of these chemicals does not occur extensively in human beings. Surprisingly, our bodies aren’t normally adapted to regulate these chemical reactions. Also, our growing use of chemicals induces the need for us to understand our human body better.
It is possible for the human body to get rid of these foreign materials sometimes, but unfortunately, the continuous input of such materials is responsible for damaging our internal systems too!
Did you know that the major sources of xenobiotics are food additives, hydrocarbons and oil mixtures? It's scary to know that these compounds are threatening the environment as well as humans. Xenobiotics can be exogenous or endogenous. Exogenous xenobiotics are simply foreign molecules that are not normally ingested or utilized by the organism, and they enter the body in the form of certain medicines or drugs. Endogenous xenobiotics, on the other hand, are not foreign substances but are rather substances synthesized in the body, such as bile or fatty acids. You may wonder why these chemicals would even be classified as xenobiotics if they are not foreign to the body. Well, it’s because they do have effects similar to that of the exogenous ones.
It is crucial to understand xenobiotics as it helps us perceive the limits of the body’s tolerance to foreign materials and, furthermore, determine the risk that seemingly harmless products can have on us. Chemistry plays an important role in xenobiotics, and isn’t it fascinating to discover that chemistry is not only around us but within us too?
By : Malaya Parwani and Pulkit Sureka
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