Abstract

Saline/air, blood/air, olive oil/air, and tissue/air (lung, kidney, liver, brain, muscle, heart, and fat) partition coefficients were determined for nine aliphatic hydrocarbons: n-pentane, 2,2-dimethylbutane, 3-methylpentane, 2-methylpentane, methylcyclopentane, n-hexane, cyclohexane, 3-methylhexane, and n-heptane. Blood/air partition coefficients were found to range between 0.38 (n-pentane) and 1.9 (n-heptane) and the value of the tissue/air partition coefficients rose from n-pentane to n-heptane. The tissue/air partition coefficients were significantly correlated with the blood/air partition coefficients (r = 0.92-0.98). According to the slope of the regression lines, the mean solubility of the nine aliphatic hydrocarbons in the different tissues was higher than in blood by the factors: lung 1.4 (range 1.2-2.1) heart 3.9 (range 0.5-4.5), liver 5.6 (range 5.5-13.5), kidney 5.2 (range 1.6-5.8), brain 6.5 (range 5.8-10.7), muscle 7.6 (range 1.8-8.8), and fat 205 (range 104-254). The blood/air and olive oil/air partition coefficients were significantly correlated with the boiling points and the molecular weights of the aliphatic hydrocarbons studied.