Sodium monofluoroacetate

Sodium fluoroacetate is the organofluorine chemical compound with the formula FCH2CO2Na. This colourless salt has a taste similar to that of sodium chloride and is used as a metabolic poison. Sodium fluoroacetate is a synthetic chemical compound, and does not occur naturally. Potassium fluoroacetate is a different compound, and does occur naturally as an anti-herbivore metabolite in various plants. Like sodium fluoroacetate, potassium fluoroacetate can also be produced synthetically. Both are derivatives of fluoroacetic acid, a carboxylic acid. The more common fluorinated acetic acid (trifluoroacetic acid) and its derivatives are far less toxic. Sodium fluoroacetate is the organofluorine chemical compound with the formula FCH2CO2Na. This colourless salt has a taste similar to that of sodium chloride and is used as a metabolic poison. Sodium fluoroacetate is a synthetic chemical compound, and does not occur naturally. Potassium fluoroacetate is a different compound, and does occur naturally as an anti-herbivore metabolite in various plants. Like sodium fluoroacetate, potassium fluoroacetate can also be produced synthetically. Both are derivatives of fluoroacetic acid, a carboxylic acid. The more common fluorinated acetic acid (trifluoroacetic acid) and its derivatives are far less toxic. The effectiveness of sodium fluoroacetate as a rodenticide was reported in 1942. The name '1080' refers to the catalogue number of the poison, which became its brand name. The salt is synthesized by treating sodium chloroacetate with potassium fluoride. Potassium fluoroacetate, (as opposed to the commercially manufactured synthetic compound sodium fluoroacetate) occurs naturally in at least 40 plant species in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Africa. It was first identified in Dichapetalum cymosum, commonly known as gifblaar (Afrikaans) or poison leaf, by Marais in 1944. As early as 1904, colonists in Sierra Leone used extracts of Chailletia toxicaria, which also contains fluoroacetic acid or its salts, to poison rats. Several native Australian plant genera contain the toxin, including Gastrolobium, Gompholobium, Oxylobium, Nemcia, and Acacia. New Zealand's native Puha contains 1080 in very low concentrations. Gastrolobium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. There are over 100 species in this genus, and all but two are native to the south west region of Western Australia, where they are known as 'poison peas'. Gastrolobium growing in south western Australia are unique in their ability to concentrate fluoroacetate from low fluorine soils. Brush-tailed possums, bush rats, and western grey kangaroos native to this region are capable of safely eating plants containing fluoroacetate, but livestock and introduced species from elsewhere in Australia are highly susceptible to the poison, as are species introduced from outside Australia, such as the red fox. The fact that many Gastrolobium species also have high secondary toxicity to non-native carnivores is thought to have limited the ability of cats to establish populations in locations where the plants form a major part of the understorey vegetation. The presence of Gastrolobium species in the fields of farmers in Western Australia has often forced these farmers to 'scalp' their land — that is, remove the top soil and any poison pea seed which it may contain, and replace it with a new poison pea-free top soil sourced from elsewhere in which to sow crops. Similarly, following bushfires in north-western Queensland cattlemen have to move livestock before the poisonous Gastrolobium grandiflorum emerges from the ashes. Sodium fluoroacetate is toxic to all obligate aerobic organisms, and highly toxic to mammals and insects. The oral dose of sodium fluoroacetate sufficient to be lethal in humans is 2–10 mg/kg. The toxicity varies with species. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority established lethal doses for a number of species. Dogs, cats, and pigs appear to be most susceptible to poisoning. The enzyme fluoroacetate dehalogenase has been discovered in a soil bacterium, which can detoxify fluoroacetate in the surrounding medium.