Identification of 1-methylthiourea as the metabolite of ethylenethiourea in rats by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The method is described for determination of a metabolite of ethylenethiourea (ETU) in rats. ETU and its metabolites were extracted from plasma into ethanol after collecting the blood from female rats treated orally with ETU. Then the extract was cleaned up on a silica gel column chromatography and examined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). About 0.014 ppm of 1-methylthiourea was detected as the metabolite of ETU in plasma collected 2 h after an oral administration of 200 mg/kg of ETU.