Which Enzymes Catalyse the Deacetylation of Drugs in the Human Body? If you would like more specifics seeing how I realise that this question is very broad and may be difficult to answer in general then hopefully the following will help you out: 1. I am particularly interested in acetyl groups bound by carbon single bonds 2. Drug metabolism in the liver particularly interests me 3. The drug paracetamol's (acetaminophen) deacetylation to p-aminophenol is of particular interest to me.

Acetyl esters can be deacetylated by carboxylesterases.

In case of an acyl/aryl group attached to acetate group (e.g., benzoate), I guess it will first undergo ring opening and then beta oxidation (as in case of tyrosine).

Paracetamol -> p-aminophenol is a deamidation (I am not sure, but enzymes like ornithine decarboxylase can do that job... just a guess).