Metformin is the most widely used drug to treat type 2 diabetes, and is one of only two oral antidiabetic drugs on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of essential medicines. Metformin is an antihyperglycemic agent which improves glucose tolerance in patients with type 2 diabetes, lowering both basal and postprandial plasma glucose. Metformin decreases hepatic glucose production, decreases intestinal absorption of glucose, and improves insulin sensitivity by increasing peripheral glucose uptake and utilization. However, we still do not completely understand its mechanisms of action. The main effect of this drug from the biguanide family is to acutely decrease hepatic glucose production, mostly through a mild and transient inhibition of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I. In addition, the resulting decrease in hepatic energy status activates AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase), a cellular metabolic sensor, providing a generally accepted mechanism for the action of metformin on hepatic gluconeogenesis. The use of metformin, the most commonly prescribed drug for type 2 diabetes, was repeatedly associated with the decreased risk of the occurrence of various types of cancers, especially of pancreas and colon and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Dicyandiamide is a nitrification inhibitor, used in agriculture. Its use may cause contamination of food.

Orotic acid is a minor dietary constituent. Historically it was believed to be part of the vitamin B complex and was called vitamin B13, but it is now known that it is not a vitamin and is synthesized in the body, where it arises as an intermediate in the pathway for the synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides. Orotic acid is converted to UMP by UMP synthase, a multifunctional protein with both orotate phosphoribosyl transferase and orotidylate decarboxylase activity. The most frequently observed inborn error of pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis is a mutation of the multifunctional protein UMP synthase. As a result, plasma orotic acid accumulates to high concentrations, and increased quantities appear in the urine. Orotic acid levels are elevated in the urea cycle defects ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, citrullinemia and argininosuccinic acidemia, as well as the mitochondrial transport disorder hyperornithinemia-hyperammonemia-homocitrullinuria (HHH) syndrome. Orotic acid is also elevated in hereditary orotic aciduria, or uridine monophosphate synthase deficiency, an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by megaloblastic anemia and crystalluria. In addition, orotic acid in combination with leflunomide is in the phase II of clinical trial to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of a combination in kidney transplant patients with high levels of Polyoma BK viruria for the purpose of preventing polyoma BK viremia and nephropathy, that could lead to kidney transplant loss from viral damage, acute rejection or both.