ABSTRACT
Understanding the metabolism, or biotransformation, of xenobiotics has come to be regarded as fundamental to appreciating the toxic mechanisms of chemicals, be they drugs, industrial chemicals, pesticides, or other molecule foreign to the body. Although it is not clear whether xeno-
biotic metabolism is better regarded as the introduction of foreign chemicals into a metabolic machinery that was intended by nature for natural substrates or whether the vast array of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes and their wide substrate specificity is a product of evolutionary adaptation to exposure chemicals in their environment, what is clear is that the complicated interaction of oxida-
species or their detoxification and enhanced elimination from the body.
