How Is Urea Made?

How Is Urea Made
••• Sinhyu/iStock/GettyImages

The lungs, kidneys and skin are the main excretory organs, meaning they remove potentially toxic waste products from the body. The lungs get rid of excess carbon dioxide, the skin eliminates excess water and salts, and the kidneys remove excess water, salts and urea. Urea forms when dietary proteins make amino acids after digestion. The liver breaks down excess amino acids to make ammonia, then converts this into urea, which is less toxic in the body than ammonia.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Urea is the waste produced by humans, as well as many other mammals, amphibians and some fish, when the body metabolizes protein. In the liver, the urea cycle breaks down excess amino acids into ammonia, then transforms ammonia into urea.

Properties of Urea

Urea consists of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. You can find it in urine, sweat, blood and milk in mammals. In its most concentrated form, it is urine. Urea is a crystalline compound, and the nitrogen content is always at least 46 percent when dry. About one million pounds of urea is manufactured in the United States each year, most of it for fertilizers due to its high nitrogen content, which makes it water soluble. Urea is also in animal feedstock, certain plastics and glues, explosive components and commercial products.

The Urea Cycle

The urea cycle starts with deamination, when the liver breaks down amino acids to make ammonia. Ammonia is highly toxic and would be deadly if it accumulated in the body. Fortunately, carrier molecules and enzymes in the liver quickly convert it to urea. The urea cycle absorbs two molecules of ammonia and one molecule of carbon dioxide, creates one molecule of urea and regenerates one molecule of ornithine for the cycle to begin again.

The kidneys remove urea, as well as glucose, water and salts, by filtering blood at high pressures. While glucose, water and salts are reabsorbed into the blood, urea is not. It passes out of the body as a solution in water, which you know as urine. If you have a urea cycle disorder or a genetic disease, your body cannot safely detoxify ammonia.

Synthetic Urea

In a scientific breakthrough in 1828, urea was the first natural compound to be artificially synthesized using inorganic compounds. The chemical compound urea is made by heating ammonium carbamide, a combination of ammonia and carbon dioxide, in a sealed container. The heat dehydrates the compound and forms urea, a crystal-type substance.

Related Articles

What is Urea?
Physical Properties of Urea
Common Reducing Sugars
What Is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate?
How to Regenerate Activated Charcoal
The Chemical Properties of Lemon Juice
What Is the Density of Nitrogen Gas?
Five Major Organ Systems of the Body
Which Organs Help the Human Body Get Rid of Wastes...
How to Experiment with Coffee Filters to Explain How...
What Kind of Energy Makes Muscle Cells Contract?
5 Uses of Fermentation
What Is the Formula for Cellular Respiration?
How Is Synthetic Camphor Made?
The Difference Between Sucralose & Fructose
Alternative Solvents to Benzene
Is Grease Dissolving in Soapy Water a Physical or Chemical...
What Are the Functions of the Cecum?
How to Calculate Solubilities
How Do pH Buffers Work?

Dont Go!

We Have More Great Sciencing Articles!