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Drug Excretion

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The ADME Encyclopedia

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Synonyms

Clearance; Drug elimination; Hepatobiliary excretion; Renal excretion

Definition

Drug excretion comprises those processes responsible of physically removing a drug, unchanged, from the body. Drug metabolites can also be excreted as well. The main routes for excretion are, undoubtedly, urinary excretion and biliary excretion. Secondary excretion routes include respiration (which may have an impact for volatile compounds), perspiration, saliva, semen, hair, breast milk, and tears [1]. In the case of poultry, drugs can also be excreted in eggs. Of course, many of these routes do not correspond to evolutive specialized strategies to dispose of xenobiotics but emerge from the fact that drugs are potentially distributed to virtually every body fluid and tissue. While secondary routes are often unimportant from a purely pharmacokinetic perspective, they are relevant for other reasons. Elimination of drugs through eggs or breast milk can result in undesired exposure to xenobiotics...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Bioactive Research and Development (LIDeB), Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, University of La Plata (UNLP), La Plata, Argentina

    Alan Talevi & Carolina L. Bellera

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)- CCT La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Alan Talevi & Carolina L. Bellera

Authors
  1. Alan Talevi
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  2. Carolina L. Bellera
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan Talevi .

Section Editor information

  1. Laboratory of Bioactive Research and Development (LIDeB), Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, University of La Plata (UNLP), La Plata, Argentina

    Alan Talevi

  2. Argentinean National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) - CCT La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Alan Talevi

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Talevi, A., Bellera, C.L. (2021). Drug Excretion. In: The ADME Encyclopedia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51519-5_7-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51519-5_7-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51519-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51519-5

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