Facile synthesis of 14C ‐nitrofurazone from 14C‐urea

A synthetic method of14C-nitrofurazone is developed. The method uses readily available and cheaper14C-urea as a starting material.14C-Nitrofurazone is synthesized by monoamination of14C-urea with hydrazine and subsequent reaction of aminated14C-urea with 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde. The veterinary drug nitrofurazone (5-nitro-2-furaldehyde semicarbazone) exhibits excellent antimicrobial properties but its application in food-producing animals is prohibited. The illegal use of nitrofurazone is regularly monitored by food regulatory agencies. Currently, semicarbazide (SEM) is used as a marker of nitrofurazone exposure. However, the use of SEM as a marker of nitrofurazone is under scrutiny after evidence of a high incidence of false positive tests. To overcome the current dilemma, it is necessary to identify a nitrofurazone-specific marker analyte which requires conducting nitrofurazone metabolism studies in food-producing animals. The use of carbon-14 labeled nitrofurazone would facilitate metabolism studies and structural elucidation of nitrofurazone metabolites of possible utility as a marker compound. In the present work, a synthetic method is described to procure radiolabeled nitrofurazone that incorporates14C- carbon at the semicarbazide moiety. The method incorporates14C-carbon via employing readily available and more economically affordable [14C]-urea compared with [14C]-semicarbazide. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the synthesis of 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde [1...
Source: Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: NOTE Source Type: research