Urine, human protein-carbohydrate compounds

McGale, E. H. F, Protein-Carbohydrate Compounds in Human Urine, 24, 435-452... 

As with urine, saliva (spumm) is easy to collect. The levels of protein and lipids in saliva or spumm are low (compared to blood samples). These matrices are viscous, which is why extraction efficiency of xenobioties amoimts to only 5 to 9%. By acidifying the samples, extraction efficiencies are improved as the samples are clarified, and proteinaceous material and cellular debris are precipitated and removed. Some xenobioties and their metabohtes are expressed in hair. Hair is an ideal matrix for extraction of analytes to nonpolar phases, especially when the parent xenobioties are extensively metabolized and often nondetectable in other tissues (parent molecules of xenobioties are usually less polar than metabolites). Hair is a popular target for forensic purposes and to monitor drug compliance and abuse. Human milk may be an indicator of exposure of a newborn to compounds to which the mother has been previously exposed. The main components of human milk are water (88%), proteins (3%), lipids (3%), and carbohydrates in the form of lactose (6%). At present, increasing attention is devoted to the determination of xenobioties in breath. This matrix, however, contains only volatile substances, whose analysis is not related to PLC applications. 

Although cobalt ions are found in both the (II) and (III) oxidation states, the most important biological compound of cobalt is vitamin B12 or cobalamin where the Co(III) form is present (256) (Fig. 6.10). Cobalamin or related substances are important biological compounds that are involved in a great variety of activities, particularly in bacteria. Vitamin B12 is also necessary in the nutrition of humans and probably of most animal and plant species. It is of critical importance in the reactions by which residues from carbohydrates, fats and proteins, are used to produce energy in living cells. Pernicious anemia is a severe disease in elderly people. This disease is usually accompanied in mammals by the increased excretion of methylmalonic acid in the urine. Today it is effectively controlled by a 100 /ig injection of vitamin B,2. 

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