Catalytic Reactions of Detoxification Enzymes

In metabolic biotransformation process, foreign compounds are converted into more polar products to facilitate their elimination from the body. As discussed above, phase I activation metabolism involves functionalization reactions, where metabolic reactions catalyzed by activation enzymes introduce functional groups to foreign compounds, resulting in greatly increasing the solubility of parent compounds. The modified lipophilic foreign compounds then undergo phase II enzyme-catalyzed reactions to detoxify metabolites and facilitate their excretion from the body.