Pharmacokinetics in Humans
A study was conducted to define the pharmacological response of humans to ractopamine. A single oral dose of 40 mg of ractopamine hydrochloride was given to human volunteers. Ractopamine was rapidly absorbed. The mean blood plasma half-life was around 4 hrs and ractopamine was not detected in plasma 24 hrs after dosing. It was shown that <5% of total ractopamine excreted represented the parent drug, while the urinary metabolites were monoglucuronide and monosulfate conjugates, with ractopamine monosulfate being the major metabolite present.
The metabolic fate of ractopamine hydrochloride is similar in the target species (pigs and cattle), laboratory animals and humans. Besides the pharmacology effect, ractopamine may cause intoxication effect, therefore, any consumption by humans of a meat and/or byproducts of animals that consumed ractopamine with feed for growth stimulation, may result in such clinical effects as tachycardia and other heart rate increases, tremor, headache, muscle spasm, high arterial blood pressure. The effect of ractopamine on humans is not entirely known, but consumption of products that contain ractopamine leftovers is not advisable to people with CVD (cardiovasular diseases).
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