Metabolites in Urine of Rats on Diets containing Aldrin or Dieldrin

Abstract

USING a fly bioassay technique, Kunze and Laug¹ reported the presence of toxicant in liver, kidney, abdominal fat and urine of rats fed dieldrin or aldrin. They observed that the toxicant in kidney and urine occurred mainly in males, with traces only in females. This toxicant in male kidney and urine differed from either dieldrin or aldrin because it could be readily destroyed by treatment with 2 per cent alcoholic KOH, a property not shared by the parent substances. Since these observations, a number of investigators^2–6 have reported findings which indicate the presence of derivations of dieldrin and aldrin in tissues and urine. These are assumed to be metabolites and can be most readily distinguished from dieldrin and aldrin by their increased hydrophilic properties.