Paracetamol conjugation: an interethnic and dietary study.

To test whether dietary or hereditary factors affect paracetamol metabolism, two groups of Venda and a group of Caucasian medical students were investigated. The Venda groups were selected as traditionally living villagers and those who followed a Western life-style. Salivary concentrations of paracetamol and urinary amounts of the glucuronide and sulphate metabolites eliminated over 22 h were determined by HPLC. The metabolite formation rate constants and the percentage of the dose eliminated as each metabolite were calculated. No significant differences were found between the data for total Venda, rural Venda, westernized Venda and Caucasian students for the calculated metabolite parameters. Thus environmental effects showed no apparent influence on the sulphide and glucuronide conjugation of paracetamol, and no hereditary effect was evident between the Venda and Caucasians.