relationship between the physicochemical properties of pyrethroid insecticides and their speed of neurotoxic action

The rate of onset of pyrethroid‐induced depolarisations of the nerve cell membrane in isolated ganglia of the leech Hirudo medicinalis was measured using intracellular recordings. The speed of neurotoxicity of a series of substituted benzyl (1RS)‐trans‐cyclopropane‐1‐carboxylates was related to the size of the groups at C3 and C4 of the benzyl ring, the ability of the ring substituents to donate electrons, and the nature of the substituents at the two terminal positions of the vinyl group subtended by the cyclopropane ring. The speed of action was also related to the electronic environment of the protons subtended by the geminal methyl group held trans to the carboxyl group. Compounds, the partition properties of which were sensitive to interactions between the pyrethroid and solvent molecules, tended to act rapidly. There was no simple relationship between the speed of neurotoxic action in isolated leech ganglia and the knockdown potency to mustard beetles.