A chemical compound formed when bacteria in the intestine act on BILIRUBIN. Some is reabsorbed and returns to the LIVER and some is eliminated in the faeces.
n. a colourless product of the reduction of the *bile pigment bilirubin. Urobilinogen is formed from bilirubin in the intestine by bacterial action. Part of it is reabsorbed and returned to the liver; part of it is excreted in the faeces (a trace may also appear in the urine). When exposed to air, urobilinogen is oxidized to a brown pigment, urobilin.
The chief pigment in human BILE. It is derived from HAEMOGLOBIN which is the red pigment of the red blood corpuscles. The site of manufacture of bilirubin is the RETICULOENDOTHELIAL SYSTEM. When bile is passed into the intestine from the gall-bladder (see LIVER), part of the bilirubin is converted into stercobilin and excreted in the FAECES. The remainder is reabsorbed into the bloodstream, and of this portion the bulk goes back to the liver to be re-excreted into the bile, whilst a small proportion is excreted in the urine as urobilinogen.... bilirubin
coloured compounds – breakdown products of the blood pigment *haemoglobin – that are excreted in *bile. The two most important bile pigments are bilirubin, which is orange or yellow, and its oxidized form biliverdin, which is green. Mixed with the intestinal contents, they give the brown colour to the faeces (see urobilinogen).... bile pigments
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