Enantioselectivity in aquatic toxicity of synthetic pyrethroid insecticide fenvalerate

Synthetic pyrethroids (SPs) are a family of chiral insecticides with a large number of stereoisomers. Fenvalerate (FV) is one of the most potent pyrethroid insecticides, controlling a wide range of insect pests in agricultural fields, public health situations and animal houses. FV contains two chiral centers. In this study, four stereoisomers of FV were absolutely separated by high-performance liquid chromatography with a commercial chiral column, CHIRALCEL OJ-H, using n-hexane containing 1,2-dichloroethane and ethanol as mobile phase. Toxicity assays of each isomer and racemate of FV were performed using Daphnia magna (D. magna), zebrafish (Danio rerio) and zebrafish embryo-larval. In the acute toxicity of D. magna, significant differences were observed: the 24h EC(50) of alphaS-2S-FV was 51 times more toxic than the alphaR-2R-FV, and the 48 h LC(50) results showed that the alphaS-2S-FV was 99 times more toxic than alphaR-2R-FV. In the toxicity assay of D. rerio, dramatic differences were also found: the LC(50) value of alphaS-2S-FV was 17, 22, 39 and 56 times more toxic than the alphaR-2R-FV at 24, 48, 72 and 96 h, respectively. The assays of 4-day-old zebrafish embryo-larval showed that the exposure to FV enantioselectively induced crooked body, yolk sac edema and pericardial edema and that the alphaS-2S-FV was 3.8 times stronger than the other isomers in 96-h mortality. The results indicate that the enantiomeric differences should be taken into consideration in assessing the ecological effects of SPs.