biology

Monocrotophos

Monocrotophos is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Monocrotophos rather than just read about it. In short: Monocrotophos is an organophosphate insecticide. It is acutely toxic to birds and humans, so it has been banned in the U.S., the E.U., India and many other countries.

Key takeaways

Monocrotophos belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Monocrotophos to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Monocrotophos from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Monocrotophos is an organophosphate insecticide. It is acutely toxic to birds and humans, so it has been banned in the U.S., the E.U., India and many other countries.

Uses Monocrotophos is principally used in agriculture, as a relatively cheap pesticide. However, it is also used frequently as a tool to commit suicide. It is used as a pesticide for cucumber. Monocrotophos is believed to be the contaminant responsible for the death of 23 schoolchildren in a Bihar, India school. They ate a state-provided school lunch in the district of Saran in India in July 2013 which was prepared in oil kept in the container of this pesticide.

Toxicity

To wildlife Widespread bird kills, including a large kill of Swainson's Hawks in Argentina, have resulted from the use of monocrotophos.

Diabetogen In a study published in Genome Biology, researchers demonstrated the gut microbiota mediated diabetogenic effect of organophosphate insecticides. They used monocrotophos as the prototypical organophosphate in their study and showcased that during chronic intake, monocrotophos is degraded by the gut microbiota and the end products are converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis that account for glucose intolerance. All the studies were validated in human samples from the villages in Madurai.

Cardiotoxicity In a recent study, Wistar rats were administered 1/50 of LD50 dosage of monocrotophos (0.36 mg/kg body weight) orally via gavage daily for three weeks. Animals administered Monocrotophos exhibited mild hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia in the blood. Cardiac oxidative stress was conferred by accumulation of protein carbonyls, lipid peroxidation and glutathione production. The cardiac markers (cTn-I, CK-MB and LDH) showed elevated levels in blood plasma, which indicates cardiac tissue damage. The histopathology of the heart tissue authenticated the monocrotophos induced tissue damage by showing signs of nonspecific inflammatory changes and edema between muscle fibres. Thus the findings of this preliminary study illustrate the cardiotoxic effect of prolonged monocrotophos intake in rats and suggest that MCP can be a possible independent and potent environmental cardiovascular risk factor.

Acute effects Nerve growth factor (50 ng/ml) induced functional differentiation in PC12 cells has been reported. The studies have been carried out showing mitochondria mediated apoptosis in PC12 cells exposed to monocrotophos. A significant induction in reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxides, and the ratio of glutathione disulfide/reduced glutathione was observed in cells exposed to selected doses of monocrotophos. Following the exposure of PC12 cells to monocrotophos, the levels of protein and mRNA expression of caspase-3, caspase-9, BAX, p53, p21, PUMA, and cytochrome-c were significantly upregulated, whereas the levels of Bcl-2, Bcl-w, and Mcl-1 were downregulated. TUNEL assay, DNA laddering, and micronuclei induction show that long-term exposure of PC12 cells to monocrotophos at higher concentration (10−5 M) decreases the number of apoptotic events due to an increase in the number of necrotic cells. Monocrotophos-induced translocation of BAX and cytochrome-c proteins between the cytoplasm and mitochondria confirmed the role of monocrotophos in the permeability of the mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondria mediated apoptosis induction was confirmed by the increased activity of caspase cascade. These apoptotic changes could be correlated with elevated levels of expression of selected cytochrome P450s (CYP1A1/1A2, 2B1/2B2, 2E1) in PC12 cells exposed to monocrotophos (10−5 M).

References

External links Monocrotophos in the Pesticide Properties DataBase (PPDB)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Monocrotophos

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Monocrotophos claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Monocrotophos before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Monocrotophos ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Monocrotophos

In research: Monocrotophos appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Monocrotophos in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Monocrotophos is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, Acrylamides, Neurotoxins, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Monocrotophos outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Monocrotophos in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Monocrotophos means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Monocrotophos out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Monocrotophos in simple terms?

Monocrotophos is an organophosphate insecticide. It is acutely toxic to birds and humans, so it has been banned in the U.S., the E.U., India and many other countries.

Why does Monocrotophos matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Monocrotophos?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Monocrotophos.