Paracetamol metabolism in African villagers.

Paracetamol clearance has been measured from serial serum samples in 49 healthy black Africans from a village in Southern Africa. The subjects are minimally exposed to known environmental inducing or inhibiting agents and the staple diet consists of maize cereal and greens. The mean clearance (+/- SD) was 4.98 +/- 1.61 ml min-1 kg-1, which is significantly faster than the values found in previous investigations with paracetamol in whites and Asian immigrants in London. The mean half-lives were fairly similar but the apparent volumes of distribution were also found to be larger in the present study. The ethnic difference in paracetamol kinetics identified in this study is possibly genetically controlled.