Detoxication of some naturally occuring phenolics by prairie voles: a rapid assay of glucuronidation metabolism

Mammals detoxicate many phenolic compounds by conjugation with glucuronic acid, and this increases urinary excretion of components of the glucuronic acid pathway. We evaluated a measure of total uronic acid excretion by prairie voles as an index of detoxication of phenolic compounds. Various levels of quercetin and tannic acid were fed at two levels of protein to weanling prairie voles. Uronic acid excretion increased greatly with increased concentrations of dietary phenolics, but was not a simple linear function of phenolic concentration. Voles fed low protein diets excreted more uronic acids than voles fed high protein diets, apparently because of more phenolic-protein complexing in the latter case. Measurement of uronic acid output appears to provide a simple, non-invasive index of detoxication loads in these mammalian herbivores.