The metabolism and environmental degradation of the pyrethroid insecticides

Abstract

The potential value of photostabilized pyrethroids for agricultural pest control has stimulated an enormous amount of work which has rapidly led to a comprehensive understanding of their metabolism and degradation pathways in various biological systems such as animals, plants, isolated enzymes, soil and sunlight. Usually, ester cleavage is the major first step but degradation via oxidation also occurs both on the intact molecule and on the products of ester cleavage.