Tritiation of the botanically derived toxin dihydrorotenone

Pests such as insects threaten the efficient production of the world’s demanding food requirements. For this reason, insect management has increasingly relied on botanical insecticides as safer alternatives to synthetic agents. Rotenone and related compounds (rotenoids) were among the earliest botanical natural products to be identified as useful insecticides. To elucidate the rotenoid mechanism of action at the insect receptor level and design even more effective insecticides, a tritiated rotenoid analogue was required. As a result, this paper describes the successful synthesis and characterization of [3H] dihydrorotenone at high specific activity. In doing so, it also provides another example of a tritiated dihydro analogue of a parent compound acting as a surrogate for it in biological applications.