Isolation and structural determination of a mutagenic substance in creatine pyrolysate.

The pyrolysis product of creatine showed potent mutagenic activity to Salmonella typhimurium TA98 with metabolic activation by S9 mix. One of the mutagenic substances in creatine pyrolysate was isolated and named Cre-P-1. Its structure was determined by X-ray crystallography to be 4-amino-1,6-dimethyl-2-methylamino-1H,6H-pyrrolo[3,4-f]benzimidazole- 5,7-dione. Cre-P-1 is the first registered mutagenic heterocyclic amine containing oxygen atoms in the molecule, that has been isolated from pyrolysis products.