Indican

The name Indican (also: indicant ) denotes two similar derivatives of indole.

Plant indican

Plant indican is a glycoside of indoxyl and occurs naturally in some plants referred to as indigo plant, Isatis tinctoria, for example ( woad ) Indigofera tinctoria or. Indican that is a colorless, water-soluble compound which is degraded by enzymes yellow indoxyl. By oxidation occurs, the blue dye indigo.

Urinary indican

Urinary indican (also Uroxanthin ) is the potassium salt of Indoxylschwefelsäure. The likelihood of the plant indican based on an early form of the medical diagnosis, so-called urine inspection, in which the color of the urine was used for diagnostic purposes. Attention was paid to the sometimes occurring green to blue -colored urine, which is now referred to, in extreme cases as Purple urine bag syndrome ( PUBS ), and especially in older women catheterized. Although these stems also from the indigo dye, but this arises not just from the plant indican. The difference between plant and urinary indican indican discovered 1863, the German biochemist Felix Hoppe- Seyler. A detection method for Harnindikan became known as Obermeyer test.

The urinary indican is produced by microbial degradation of the essential amino acid tryptophan in the digestive tract of humans and causes, among other indole. This is then oxidized in the liver to indoxyl, vererstert to detox with sulphate and excreted as urinary indican in the urine.

Increased Indikanwerte in the blood (> 0.2 mg per 100 ml in serum) is called Indikanämie, this is reflected in the Hartnup syndrome, uremia, ileus, renal failure, intestinal putrefaction. If, due to a precipitation of the Indikanämie indican in the urine, it is called as indicanuria. This may discolor when exposed greenish- bluish with oxygen, which is, for example, in the Blue Diapers syndrome (blue diaper syndrome ), a usually congenital Tryptophanmalabsorption the case. At very high indican levels in the blood, it may even come to Indigurie, the excretion of indigo in the urine. Indican which is dependent on the supply of proteins, and is increased in some diseases. Physiological indican by the kidneys is from 5 to 20 mg per day. Increased excretion of indican is present when the urine more than 20 mg of indican excreted in 24 hours.