Biomimetic oxidation of a trans isomer of permethrin, fenvalerate, together with the corresponding chrysanthemic acid and alcohol moieties was conducted using catalytic amounts of six iron-porphyrins having different substituents, not only at b-and meso-positions but also the axial ligand of iron in the presence of hydrogen peroxide or meta-chloroperbenzoic acid as an oxidant. The several degradation products via cleavage of ester and ether linkages and hydroxylation were identified and some were found to be in vivo metabolites previously reported in plants, animal and insects. The introduction of electron-withdrawing substituents at b-and mesopositions of a porphyrin ring resulted in higher conversion and the weak electron donor as the axial ligand of iron was found to increase the oxidative reactivity of porphyrin. ©Pesticide Science Society of Japan Keywords: biomimetic oxidation, fenvalerate, iron-porphyrin, permethrin.
Materials and Methods
Chemicals. trans-Permethrinand their potential degradates were synthesized in our laboratory by the reported methods.9-13) 14 C-I and II were prepared in our laboratory according to the reported procedures 14,15) and their radio-chemical purities were determined to be greater than 98% by HPLC. The specific activity of 14 C-I labeled at 1-position of the cyclopropyl ring and those of 14 C-II uniformly labeled at chlorophenyl and phenoxyphenyl rings were 5.06, 11.2 and 10.5 MBq mg Ϫ1 , respectively. The 14 C-derivatives corresponding to the alcohol moieties, PBalc and PBacid as well as the chrysanthemic acid derivatives of I were prepared during the synthesis of 14 C-I and II. 14 C-labeled CRA was also synthesized by the reported method.16) Abbreviations and the structure of reference standards employed in this study are presented in Table I. Other than the above reference standards, mono-hydroxylated compounds 9,17) of I, II, PBalc, PBacid and t-Cl 2 CA, oxidized compounds at the alkenyl methyl group of CRA 18) , carboxy and amide derivatives of II and dePh-II 13) , 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid and phenoxymandelic acid were used for HPLC and TLC analyses, but were not detected and are not listed in Table 1. The six iron porphyrins (Fig. 2) having different substituents at b-and meso-positions of the ring and an axial ligand were used. F 20 TPPFeCl and 4OMeTPPFeCl from Sigma-Aldrich Japan Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), F 20 Br 8 TPPFeCl from Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd. (Osaka, Japan), and F 20 Br 8 -TPPFeNO 3 and F 20 Br 8 TPPFeCF 3 SO 3 from Funakoshi Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) were respectively purchased and used without further purification. Cl 8 TPPFeCl was synthesized in our laboratory as reported.19) The apparent valence of iron atom is ϩ3 in all porphyrins. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and meta-chloroperbenzoic acid (mCPBA) were purchased from Wako (Japan) and Sigma-Aldrich Japan Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), respectively, and other reagents were of the purest grade (99%) from Nacalai Tesque, Inc. (Kyoto, Japan).
Biomimetic OxidationEach radio...