page_title: Ammonia
section_title: Excretion
hierarchical_section_title: Ammonia / Ammonia's role in biological systems and human disease / Excretion
caption_attribution_description: English: Reference ranges for blood tests, sorted by mass. Values taken from Wikipedia article (Wikipedia:Reference ranges for blood tests). Originally made in Inkscape by Mikael Häggström. Please list any corrections you think may be needed on list above.
context_page_description: Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH₃. A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent smell. It is a common nitrogenous waste, particularly among aquatic organisms, and it contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or indirectly, is also a building block for the synthesis of many pharmaceutical products and is used in many commercial cleaning products. It is mainly collected by downward displacement of both air and water.
  Although common in nature—both terrestrially and in the outer planets of the Solar System—and in wide use, ammonia is both caustic and hazardous in its concentrated form. It is classified as an extremely hazardous substance in the United States, and is subject to strict reporting requirements by facilities which produce, store, or use it in significant quantities.
  The global industrial production of ammonia in 2018 was 175 million tonnes, with no significant change relative to the 2013 global industrial production of 175 million tonnes.
context_section_description: Ammonium ions are a toxic waste product of metabolism in animals. In fish and aquatic invertebrates, it is excreted directly into the water. In mammals, sharks, and amphibians, it is converted in the urea cycle to urea, because it is less toxic and can be stored more efficiently. In birds, reptiles, and terrestrial snails, metabolic ammonium is converted into uric acid, which is solid, and can therefore be excreted with minimal water loss.
caption: Reference ranges for blood tests, comparing blood content of ammonia (shown in yellow near middle) with other constituents
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