Benzidine-congener-based azo dyes: assays for purity and residues in feces from dosed rats

Analytical methods were required to determine purities of benzidine-congener-based azo dyes and residues of the intact dyes in feces from rats before valid metabolism studies of such compounds could be conducted. A procedure is described for purity assays based on reduction of the dyes with stannous chloride followed by gas chromatography of the released free amine. Sixteen different samples of commercial dyes based on three benzidine congeners were assayed; purities ranged from 26.4 to 83.4%. Several dyes were also shown to be partially purified by cold water washes. A method to determine two intact dyes in feces from dosed rats, which consisted of extraction with dimethylformamide: water, clean-up by a rapid procedure using an octadecylsilane column, and quantification by ion-pair high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is reported. minimum detectable levels of both dyes in feces are 0.2 ppm. Excretion profiles based on parallel HPLC and radioassays of feces from rats dosed with 14C-labeled Direct Blue 15 and Direct Red 2 are presented. Based on radioassays, about 74% of each dose was excreted via the feces; however, HPLC assays showed that only about 11% of each dose was present as intact dye in the excrement.