Synthesis of radiolabelled compounds from carbon-14 building blocks

SETAC Europe 2024 -- Imagine one individual in a crowd of 100,000 people - they would be difficult to locate. But give this individual a large flag to wave and there they are - easy to see. In addition, as they move through the crowd, you can track and follow where they go and the path they have taken. Finding and tracking a target product that is used in the environment and mixed with the multitude of compounds that represent an ecosystem is challenging; it is like looking for the ubiquitous 'needle in a haystack'. Whilst not always mandatory for all regulatory crop protection environmental fate and metabolism studies, the use of radiolabelled compounds is advantageous and is preferred by the regulatory agencies as they greatly aid the interpretation of the results. A non-radiolabelled test item can be used to determine the degradation rate, but using a radiolabelled test item allows for quantification of mass balance and elucidation of the transformation pathway.