Excretion of carbon-14-labeled aflatoxin B1 via bile, urine, and intestinal contents of the chicken.

Carbon-14-labeled aflatoxin B1 was prepared by growing Aspergillus parasiticus in medium containing sucrose-14-C as the sole carbon source. The 14-C-labeled aflatoxin B1 was extracted with chloroform and purified by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) followed by precipitation from solution and washing. The 14-C-labeled aflatoxin B1 was intravenously given to anesthetized dwarf White Leghorn or Rhode Island Red hens with cannulated ureters and bile ducts. The 14-C had a calculated plasma half-life of 1.5 minutes and rapidly appeared in the bile. The 14-C concentration in the bile reached values approximately 7 times maximum for plasma, and most could no longer be extracted with chloroform. This finding indicated that metabolites of the 14-C-labeled aflatoxin B1 had been excreted against a concentration gradient into the bile. The quantities of 14-C excreted via bile, urine, and intestinal contents remained at a fairly constant ratio of 70:15:15, respectively, over the 315-minute experimental period. Six major chloroform-soluble compounds containing 14-C were isolated. Three of these were tentatively identified as aflatoxin B1, B2, and M1. A 4th was believed to be aflatoxin B2a. None of the early chloroform-soluble metabolites were as cytotoxic as aflatoxin B1.