Rotenone

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THE ROTENONE Rotenone is a molecule extracted from many tropicals leguminosae such as Derris elliptica, Lonchocarpus nicou, Tephrosia vogelii and so on. Here is the plant Derris in south america which is used as our raw material (called in spanish Barbasco Cube in Brasil and in indian language : Intchipari) growing on very poor acid soils, needing at least 25°C temperature and 75 % humidity and ...shadow.

and ... Here is our indian supplier ! We agree with him when one of his ancestors sayings tells that : "Track doesn't exist but , we are building it while we are moving."

OLD AGES HISTORY

Rotenone is a discovery of few millenaries ago.

It's one more time the human attention minded, and for another part, in written tradition, which brought us the particularity of some plants in the past and mainly in equatorial countries, to kill cold blooded animals.

The first written remains of those raw materials history, were retrieved about ... two and the half millenaries ago, and they were probably used as fish killing before that time.

Those plants were used as "Ichtyotoxic", which means say toxic for fish (cold blooded animals) to increase the yield of fishing simultaneously in Malaysia, Equatorial Africa and Amazonia.

For thousand of years the people of Africa, of the Amazonian indians and the Indonesians have used the same plants for the same purpose... without ever having met each other (!) : the plants were thrown in streaming water or in ponds, "intoxicating" the fish.

Further on the insecticide purpose was found.

Those raw materials were dispatched all over Europe during the end of Middle-Age brought by the south-european harbours as Marseille, Barcelona, Genova or especially Venice's sellers, with the name of "Persan-grass", probably because they came through the Middle East countries from Indonesia and Malaysia area.

Gradually one fact is noticed that the "grass" is non toxic for warm blooded animals as human (true for the usual dosage of treatment but not exact from a scientific point of vue).

The renewed interest for this molecule is, first of all, the outcome of new extraction methods that allow the production of highly efficient water-soluble emulsion. Also in some countries, application of chemical insecticides are under regulations.

RECENT HISTORICAL BIRTH OF ROTENONE

At the begining of this century Rotenone molecule was studied in Japan by Roten (the reason why it was named Rotenone).

Around the 1920 years a great use of Derris powder was done as insecticide, all over the world (thousand of tons were at this time dispatched on the world market).

The plants were cultivated in equatorials countries such as Brazil, Aquator, Peru, belgium Congo, french Equatorial Africa, Cambodge, hollandish Indonesia.

The main importers were Holland and Belgium and less important USA and France.

Rotenone was forgotten since the Second World war, because of the outcome of chlorinated insecticides as DDT or HCH and afterwards phosphoric insecticides (derivated, by the way, from taboun and sarin used as toxic gas during the First World war).

ROTENONE MOLECULE 

White critallin powder. Insoluble in water. Soluble in the acetone, the carbone chloride, the chloroform, and few organic solvants.

The identification and the dosage of the molecule are made by high pressure liquid chromatography referring to a standat of evaluation.

ROTENONE ACTION

It appears that the principle response of the molecule is specifically anti-mitotic (anti tumors effects was used in the seventies)

Blocking of ATP (Adenosine Tri-phosphate) is induced by the inactivation of cytochrome-b. The mitochondria will be deprived of the energy necessary for cell multiplication, by its transporter, ATP. It blockes the oxydative phosphorylation of NADH 2.

However, the desulphurised bridges that compose the chromatic joints in cell division (at the metaphase moment) are disconnected and therefore do not permit any further chromosome migration.