[Blood alcohol in relation to the presence of n-butyl acetate]

Adult female SPF rats (strain: Sprague-Dawley) were treated with 790 mg ethanol/kg body weight by intraperitoneal injection 30 minutes after the beginning of a 5-hr-inhalation of about 1,000 ppm n-butyl acetate in air via a tracheotomy tube (under urethane anesthesia). The elimination of the ethanol from blood which was increased to about 24 mmol/l (1.1%, g/v) was not delayed during the initial linear phase as compared to control (ethanol treatment without inhalation of n-butyl acetate). During inhalation approximately 24 mumol n-butyl acetate/l were measured in blood without ethanol treatment and approximately 52 mumol n-butanol/l as a metabolite of n-butyl acetate. The n-butanol content in blood was doubled under ethanol treatment. This increase is explained by substrate competition of both alcohols at the alcohol dehydrogenase with ethanol excess.