The kinetics of elimination of salicylic acid and the formation of gentisic acid.

1. A method for the estimation of gentisic acid in urine has been devised which is based on thin-layer chromatography and fluorimetry.2. In man the urinary excretion of gentisic acid accounted for 0.6% of a 0.32 g dose of aspirin and 1.1% of a 1.28 g dose. The increase in the percentage of the dose excreted as gentisic acid provides further evidence that the elimination of salicylic acid cannot be entirely described by first order kinetics.3. Equations are presented which describe the amount of gentisic acid formed from various doses of salicylic acid in a model system, when elimination proceeds partly by simultaneous first order and zero order kinetics. The close agreement of the experimental and theoretical results indicates that the model provides an acceptable interpretation of salicylic acid elimination in man.