bioavailability

noun — 2 senses

bioavailability

noun

Etymology From bio- + availability.

1

Biology, Medicine, Natural sciences, Sciences The extent to which a substance is molecularly available to cells and tissues in a living organism, which depends on factors such as solubility, pH level, and presence of enzymes and cofactors; for example, even if one's ingestion of vitamin B₁₂ is average/typical, one might nonetheless have B₁₂ deficiency if one has poor metabolism of this particular vitamin.

2

Biology, Medicine, Natural sciences, Pharmacology, Sciences The amount of drug or nutrient which reaches the site of physiological activity after administration.

  • poor/low oral bioavailability
Related terms
bioavailable, bio-unavailable, geoavailability, bioactivity

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.