Metabolic disposition of 14C-labelled amaranth in the rat, mouse and guinea-pig

The absorption, metabolism and excretion of orally administered 14C-labelled amaranth has been studied in the rat, mouse and guinea-pig. Following administration of a single oral dose of either 2 or 200 mg/kg, most of the radioactivity was excreted in the urine and faeces in the first 24 hr, and substantially all of the dose was recovered in the excreta within 72 hr. In the rat and mouse, the principal route of excretion was the faeces, whereas in the guinea-pig, urinary excretion accounted for up to 50% of the dose. In the rat and guinea-pig the proportion of the dose excreted in the urine was significantly greater at the lower dose level. No marked accumulation of radioactivity was found in any tissues 72 hr after the administration of the labelled colouring. For all three species most of the radioactivity was shown to be associated with naphthionic acid, with traces of unchanged amaranth and a number of other unidentified metabolites also being detected. In the rat and mouse substantially all of the remaining radioactivity was associated with a single unidentified component. Naphthionic acid was found in the faeces of all three species along with a substantial, but variable, amount of unchanged dye. At least six other radioactive peaks were seen in the chromatograms of faecal extracts; two of these peaks had similar chromatographic properties to the unknown metabolites in the urine, but there was no peak corresponding to 1-amino-2-naphthol-3,6-disulphonic acid (1-ANDSA), previously reported as a urinary metabolite of amaranth. In studies of absorption from isolated loops of small intestine of the rat, mouse and guinea-pig, no significant absorption of amaranth was detected over a 100-fold concentration range (20-2000 ppm).