Abstract
1. Analytical methods for mercapturic acids, the end-products of gluthathione metabolism of the industrial solvents toluene and o-xylene (i.e., S-benzyl-N-acetylcysteine and S-(o-methylbenzyl)-N-acetylcysteine), added to human urine have been developed.
2. The sensitivity is 2ng/μl (R.S.D. = ±13%) and 1 ng/μl (R.S.D.= ±6.4%) urine for S-benzyl-N-acetylcysteine and S-(o-methylbenzyl)-N-acetylcysteine, respectively, when using the h.p.l.c. method.
3. The corresponding sensitivities for the g.l.c.-mass spectrometric method are 0.5 and 0.3 ng/μl urine, respectively.