Discovery and Development of a Novel Pyrethroid Insecticide 'Metofluthrin (SumiOne ® , Eminence ® )'

Metofluthrin (SumiOne ® , Eminence ® ) is an exciting novel pyrethroid discovered by Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. It was registered in Japan in January 2005 and has now been under worldwide development for envi- ronmental health use. Metofluthrin has extremely high knockdown activity against various insect pests espe- cially mosquitoes, as well as relatively high volatility and low mammalian toxicity. This is applicable to not only existing formulations and devices such as a mosquito coil and a liquid vaporizer, but also various new type products such as a fan vaporizer, a paper emanator and a resin emanator. It is noted that knockdown activity of Metofluthrin is more than 40 times higher than that of d-allethrin against southern house mosqui- toes in a mosquito coil formulation. This paper describes the discovery story, insecticidal efficacies in various formulations, synthetic methods and safety evaluations of Metofluthrin.