Disposition of 2‐mercaptobenzimidazole in rats dosed orally or intravenously

Abstract

The disposition of [¹⁴C]‐labeled 2‐mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI) in male Fischer‐344 rats dosed orally (49 or 0.5 mg/kg) or intravenously (0.5 mg/kg) was determined. Absorption of the oral dose was evident, since, in 72 h, most of the radioactivity administered by either route appeared in the urine. Smaller amounts appeared in the feces. In 4 h, 12% of the radioactivity from an intravenous dose of 0.5 mg/kg was excreted in the bile of rats with biliary cannulas.

For rats dosed intravenously, the half‐life for disappearance of unchanged MBI from plasma was 125 min. In contrast, the terminal half‐life for loss of radioactivity from blood was 83 h. The concentration of total radioactivity was higher in liver and kidney tissue than in blood.

One of the major urinary metabolites was identified as benzimidazole, and a minor component was tentatively identified as unchanged MBI. Neither of these could be detected in bile.