Abstract:
An understanding of selective toxicity can be important in the preparation of new compounds to be used as insecticide.
Fenitrothion is 10-50 times less toxic to mammals, than methyl parathion although the two, compounds have chemically similar structures.
A number of hypotheses have attempted to explain the selective toxicity of Fenitrothion compared to methyl parathion. The present investigation has re-examined two hypothess which suggested that the selective toxicity of Fenitrothion to mammals could be due to metabolic differences involving the methyl group substituents present on this insecticide.