Bile acids of a 3200-year-old Egyptian mummy

The bile acids of the gall bladder and hepatic tissue of a 3200-year-old Egyptian mummy were isolated by thin-layer chromatography and identified by combined gas-liquid chromatrography and mass spectrometry. Except for complete deconjugation and extensive dehydration, the bile acids were found to correspond in their qualitative and quantitative composition to the gall bladder bile acids of modern man. The secondary bile acids constituted about 50% of the total and were identified as the normal bacterial oxidoreduction products of the primary bile acids and their dehydration products. In addition a series of unsaturated bile acids were identified, which corresponded to the dehydration products of cholic and chenodeoxycholic acids. It is suggested that both bile acid deconjugation and the limited oxidoreduction were probably brought about by the Clostridium organisms identified in the tissue. On the basis of the bile acid composition it is concluded that the ancient man metabolized cholesterol along the same pathways as modern man.