Ractopamine
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IUPAC name
4-[3-[[2-Hydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethyl]amino]butyl]phenol
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3D model (JSmol)
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| MeSH | Ractopamine |
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PubChem CID
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| C18H23NO3 | |
| Molar mass | 301.39 g·mol−1 |
| 4100 mg/L | |
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Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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Ractopamine is a feed additive to promote leanness in animals raised for their meat. Pharmacologically, it is a TAAR1 agonist and β adrenoreceptor agonist that stimulates β1 and β2 adrenergic receptors. It is the active ingredient in products known as Paylean for swine and Optaflexx for cattle, developed by Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Company, for use in food animals for growth promotion.
Ractopamine use has been banned in most countries, including the European Union, mainland China and Russia while 27 other countries, such as Japan, the United States, Canada, and South Korea, have deemed meat from livestock fed ractopamine safe for human consumption.
Commercial ractopamine is a mixture of all four possible stereoisomers.
When used as a food additive, ractopamine added to feed can be distributed via the blood to the muscle tissues, where it serves as a full agonist at mouse (not necessarily human) TAAR1. It is also an agonist at beta-adrenergic receptors. A cascade of events will then be initiated to increase protein synthesis, which results in increased muscle fiber size. Ractopamine is known to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and increase carcass leanness in finishing swine. Its use in finishing swine yields about three kilograms of additional lean pork and improves feed efficiency by 10%.
As of 2015, ractopamine use as a feed additive is authorized in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The American Institute in Taiwan, which represents U.S. interests in Taiwan, claims that these "and many other countries have determined that meat from animals fed ractopamine is safe for human consumption"; this is in the context of an ongoing trade dispute between Taiwan and the U.S. on this subject, which threatened to prevent Taiwan's entry to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. In the U.S., ractopamine is allowed to be used at a feed concentration of 5–20 mg/kg feed for finishing pigs and in dosages of 5–10 mg/kg feed for finishing pigs heavier than 109 kg. The maximum residue limit for ractopamine for meat in the USA is 50 ppb.
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Wikipedia