  We formally characterize a set of causality-based properties of metabolic
networks. This set of properties aims at making precise several notions on the
production of metabolites, which are familiar in the biologists' terminology.
  From a theoretical point of view, biochemical reactions are abstractly
represented as causal implications and the produced metabolites as causal
consequences of the implication representing the corresponding reaction. The
fact that a reactant is produced is represented by means of the chain of
reactions that have made it exist. Such representation abstracts away from
quantities, stoichiometric and thermodynamic parameters and constitutes the
basis for the characterization of our properties. Moreover, we propose an
effective method for verifying our properties based on an abstract model of
system dynamics. This consists of a new abstract semantics for the system seen
as a concurrent network and expressed using the Chemical Ground Form calculus.
  We illustrate an application of this framework to a portion of a real
metabolic pathway.
