Why Is Urine Yellow? What true scientist has not asked, at some time or other, "Why is pee yellow?

" Some European alchemists in the middle ages apparently thought one possible reason was that there was gold in urine. This led to fruitless, and possibly quite disgusting, efforts to extract that gold. The yellow color in urine is due to chemicals called urobilins. These are the breakdown products of the bile pigment bilirubin. Bilirubin is itself a breakdown product of the heme part of hemoglobin from worn-out red blood cells. Most bilirubin is partly broken down in the liver, stored in the gall bladder, broken down some more in the intestines, and excreted in the feces (its metabolites are what make feces brown), but some remains in the bloodstream to be extracted by the kidneys where, converted to urobilins, it gives urine that familiar yellow tint. (Here is a great diagram of some of these reactions, from the Boehringer Mannheim Biochemical Pathways at ExPASy.) These same yellow chemicals also cause the yellow color ofjaundice and of bruises, both of which result when more hemoglobin than usual is being broken down and/or the processing of its breakdown products by the liver is not able to keep up. Why do we pee at all? Urine is mostly water, which just has to be replaced. We excrete water not just to get rid of it if we have drunk too much, but primarily to carry away toxins that would otherwise build up in our systems. The important part of urine is urea(also known as carbamide), (NH2)2CO. The real waste product our bodies have to get rid of is ammonia (NH4+, when in solution), which is formed by the breakdown of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins. But ammonia is so toxic that only tiny concentrations can be tolerated. So any ammonia in the bloodstream is rapidly converted to urea in the liver. That urea is then removed from the bloodstream in the kidneys, and left in concentrated form in the urine (about 2% of urine is urea.) (More on the "urea cycle") Urea was "discovered" by Hilaire Rouelle in 1773 (that is, he was the first chemist to isolate it in pure form and begin to understand its composition). It was the first organic compound to be artificially synthesized from inorganic starting materials when, in 1828, Friedrich Woehler prepared it by the reaction of potassium cyanate with ammonium sulfate. Woehler was really trying to make ammonium cyanate, but by synthesizing urea he disproved the theory that the chemicals of living organisms are

fundamentally different from inanimate matter, thus inventing the field of organic chemistry. Fish and amphibians lack the urea cycle for removing ammonia from the blood, since they can usually excrete ammonia directly via the gills or through the skin. This is one reason that ammonia in the environment is so highly toxic to aquatic animals. So do fish need to pee? Yes: not to excrete nitrogenous compounds, but for osmoregulatory purposes. Freshwater fish are always absorbing water from their environment by osmosis, and have to pump it out. Saltwater fish don't absorb water from the sea (blood and seawater have about the same saltiness and osmotic potential), but they do have some wastes to get rid of. More here. Where does the ammonia in our systems come from? Ammonia is generated during the deamination (breakdown) of amino acids in the liver. Other sources of ammonia include bacterial hydrolysis of urea and other nitrogenous compounds in the intestine, the purine-nucleotide cycle and amino acid transamination in skeletal muscle, and other metabolic processes in the kidneys and liver. The normal physiological concentration in blood is less than 35 micromol/l. A five- to ten-fold increase in this concentration causes toxic effects, especially on the central nervous system. Other urine facts Unusual-colored urine (black, dark orange, or brown, for example) can be a sign of serious medical problems. Some other colors can result from pigments in the diet, such as betacyanin found in red beets. Urea is apparently used as an additive in cigarettes, to enhance flavor. Urea is widely used as fertilizer, since plants can use it as a source of nitrogen. Although today urea is manufactured by the millions of tonnes through industrial processes, the urea in urine can be economically valuable if other sources of fixed nitrogen are scarce. o It can be used as plant fertilizer (when diluted). (It's organic, you know.) o The urea in urine can be broken down into ammonia again (generating the characteristic smell of stale urine) which be further oxidized by bacteria to nitrate, so useful in the production of gunpowder.

HOW DOEs URINE FORM?

Blood from the heart comes into your kidneys from the renal arteries where it enters about 2-3 million nephrons per kidney. Then, it goes through the glomerulus getting rid of some of the unwanted substances in the blood and then continues through the renal tubules and the loop of henle where it goes through renal secretion and renal excretion to reabsorb certain substances such as water (actually if your body is dehydrated your body will send anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) to your kidneys to prevent extra water from going into your urine and thus saving water for your body) and get rid of anything else that isn't wanted, then the urine goes through the renal pelvis and ureters to your bladder and then to your urethra where it is excreted out of your body as urine. So how does urine form? 1. Glomerular filtration of materials from blood plasma to glomerulus. 2. Reabsorption of substances (glucose, H20, creatine, AA, Na, K, Ca) from renal tubule to capillary 3. Secretion of substances from capillary back to renal tubule The color of urines depends on many factors. The more you take water the more whitish the urine appears. If you are dehydrated the urine color changes to dark orange. The color of urine also depends upon the food you eat or the medications you take.Urine consists of excess water and waste products that have been filtered from the blood by the kidneys. Its natural yellow color appears due to excretion of urochrome, a pigment from blood. Mostly if you are a healthy person the change in urine color is temporary. However if the change in urine color is continuously seen, this may indicate a serious disease. In this case a doctor must be consulted. BLUE/GREEN URINE results due to blue dye such as methylene blue, a component present in several medications. BROWN/BLACK URINE may results due to L-dopa or melanin excretion as well as copper or phenol poisoning. Medicine such as chloraquine and primaquine, furazolidone, metronidazole, nitrofurantoin, cascara/senna laxatives, methocarbamol, and sorbitol also produce the same results. ORANGE PINK URINE can result from abundant uric acid crystals which can be seen in acidic urine of patients who have undergone intestinal by-pass surgery or are receiving chemotherapy for malignancy. RED/PINK urine implies the presence of red cells, free hemoglobin etc. in this case doctor must be consulted immediately.