Lab's got the flavor

Isoeugenol is a flavoring agent used in food products from vanillin extract to wheat beer.

Originally derived from nutmeg, it is used in perfumes and cosmetics to achieve a "clove" or "carnation" scent.

The chemical compound is described in a catalog of fragrance and flavoring agents as being spicy, sweet and clove-like with woody undertones.

But researchers know very little about how this and countless other chemical compounds affect the body.

Kattnig will label a dose of the compound with a minute amount of radioactive carbon-14, then test the compound on rats to see where isoeugenol becomes concentrated in the animals. The carbon-14 allows a researcher to follow the isoeugenol as it travels through the rat's body.

"We want to trace the compound through the animal to find out what tissues it goes to, where it builds up," Kattnig said.

She said compounds build up in fat or glands and that some may be stored by the blood or simply excreted.

Kattnig works for Glenn Sipes, a liver toxicologist and head of the UA Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Some of the work she does, including the experiment with isoeugenol is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Toxicology Program.

The laboratory analyzes several dozen compounds per year for the programs. They have studied the effects of chemicals ranging from flavoring agents to ingredients used in latex paint, even solvent used in oil drilling.