4 ms·
I'm curious if this is common knowledge or not. A quick look at the wikipedia page for acetylcystine does not mention using it as a chelating agent, although it
by abakker 11y ago
I'm curious if this is common knowledge or not. A quick look at the wikipedia page for acetylcystine does not mention using it as a chelating agent, although it does seem to have a variety of other uses. Is this an oversight of the Wikipedia editors, or is this not a common recommendation?
- logfromblammo 11y agoIt doesn't work very well by itself as a chelating agent. But it does have an amine group and a thiol group, and can form complexes with heavier metals. Having only two ligands, that aren't positioned very advantageously relative to each other, it just doesn't "stick" very well. It's primary usefulness would be to replace the raw materials that the body uses to make the larger peptide molecules that it uses to detoxify heavy metals. Most of these require cysteine or glutathione, for the thiol. I think NAC is mostly known to broscience as a hangover remedy, as it helps clear acetaldehyde in the liver.