ON INTRACELLULAR FORMATION OF ETHANOL AND ITS POSSIBLE ROLE IN ENERGY METABOLISM

Despite a great number of papers devoted to studies of the influence of alcohol on man's health, very few of them discuss the issue of the presence of ethanol in the human body not connected with alcohol consumption. Such ethanol is commonly called endogenous. It is believed to originate from the microbial fermentation of the carbohydrates in the gastro-intestinal tract (Krebs and Perkins, 1970; Blomstrand, 1971). Because of the low concentrations of endogenous ethanol, which reaches 0.39 ± 0.45 μg/ml (0.039 mg/dl) in the blood of sober people (Jones et al ., 1983), as compared to concentrations produced by orally consumed exogenous ethanol, ethanol presence in the blood of abstaining people is not receiving any significant attention. This is understandable if endogenous ethanol is presumed …