Why is urea toxic?

Urea isn't toxic (unless at really high concentrations I think). Your liver actually turns amino acids into urea which can then be safely removed in your pee.

It contains ammonia which can harm human cells over time especially brain cells because it is very corrosive.

Hope that helps

I'm not sure. It's quite basic, but the blood is buffered against PH change.


It doesn't contain ammonia.

It does. The amino acids are converted from protein into metabolic waste. This means alpha-amino nitrogen is removed, which results in ammonia being formed.

CO2+ 2NH3 → CH4N20 + H20

This isn't really relevant.

Solubility doesn't cause something to be toxic.

Aw, no need to be bitter. I was explaining how ammonia is found in urea which leads to its toxicity, which answers OP's question - so it kind of is relevant.

Aw, no need to be bitter. I was explaining how ammonia is found in urea which leads to its toxicity, which answers OP's question - so it kind of is relevant.

I was explaining how ammonia is found in urea

Urea is a metabolic product of ammonia, that doesn't mean it contains ammonia? Glucose is broken down to acetyl CoA in some of the steps of respiration, that doesn't mean acetyl CoA contains glucose? If you want an even simpler example, when you breathe out CO2 and H2O as products of respiration, are you breathing out glucose too?

@Bubblybabybling to answer your question, urea in high concentrations in the blood is called uraemia which can cause cell death, oxidative stress, and interferes with some cell signalling, other cell chemical reactions as well as proliferation. It has a chaotropic effect on the cell membrane (interferes with hydrogen-bonding networks) which causes many of the issues I've just mentioned. It can also cause water retention and its associated conditions (high blood pressure, heart disease, oedema, nausea/loss of appetite leading to malnutrition/anaemia etc). It also directly damages nerves.

Hope this helped

High concentration of urea can affect the following body functions:
1) interfere blood cells production from bone marrow, causing anemia
2) interfere blood clot process by platelets, making blood clot slower
3) acidosis, causing accumulation of organic acids in the body like lactic acid
4) body fluid building up (edema)
5) prolonged clearance time of glucose

symptoms are easy to find.

urea doesn't contain ammonia. like u said ammonia is toxic and is therefore converted (broken down) into urea. u saying urea contains ammonia is like saying amino acids contain proteins - they don't. they make proteins but don't contain them similarly urea makes ammonia but doesn't contain it.however urea does contain ammonium ions that are still toxic, just much less than urea

It contains ammonia which can harm human cells over time especially brain cells because it is very corrosive.

Hope that helps