Toxicokinetics and metabolic study of 2,2′-dihydroxy-4,4′- dimethoxybenzophenone

2,2′-Dihydroxy-4,4′-dimethoxybenzophenone (UV-D) is one of the benzophenones, which is widely used as UV filter to protect industrial and commercial products from light. This compound is suspected as a kind of endocrine-disrupting chemical, which might interfere with hormonal signaling pathways, and have potential adverse effects on human health. Thus, toxicity and metabolism of it could be important to know its biological effect. As little is known about the toxicokinetics and metabolism of UV-D, herein, the related study was performed on rats by orally administrating with UV-D. UV-D was found to be promptly metabolized to five main metabolites, which were further identified by high-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Demethylation, hydroxylation, sulfonation, and glucuronidation were the main metabolic pathways for UV-D.