Fig. 2

Degradation of iodinated sugar molecules. a Iodinated glucose is less readily degraded than its parent compound glucose or the reference compound sodium acetate (NaAc), but still reaches ready biodegradability within the 21-d window (dashed line). b The sugar dimer ZK 203014 with two iodines attached to achieve a higher radiocontrast shows only marginal biodegradability. In both graphs, the “Toxicity Control” depicts the result of the degradation of a 1:1 mixture of NaAc plus the test compound (ZK 35299 or ZK 203014). In both cases, these curves approximate the combination of the individual degradation curves of NaAc and the test compound, indicating that the test compound does not inhibit the degradation of NaAc by microcidal action