Synthesis of radiolabelled crop protection products from carbon-14 building blocks

IUPAC 2023 -- Why is radioactivity required in regulatory studies of crop protection products? 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 crop protection 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 fabled 'needle in a haystack'. Whilst not always mandatory for all regulatory crop protection environmental fate and metabolism studies, their use is advantageous and is preferred by the regulatory agencies as they greatly aid the interpretation of the results. Whilst a non-radiolabelled test item can be used to determine the degradation rate, using radiolabelled test item allows for quantification of mass balance and elucidation of the transformation pathway.