Cartap poisoning: An unusual poisoning in north India.

Novel plant or animal derived insecticides are in the process of development following resistance to the contemporary organochlorine and organophosphate compounds. Cartap hydrochloride is one such novel analogue of nereistoxin and is commercially known as ‘padan’. It was first manufactured in Japan in 1966 and has been used in India since 1988. It was first isolated in Japan in 1967 from marine annelid Lumbrineris heteropoda. 1 It is a nereistoxin. It is commonly used in rice fields because of its paralytic toxicity against rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis. Its basic chemical structure is S,S-[2-(dimethylamino)-1,3-propanediyl] dicarbamothioate (Figure 1) and is normally used as hydrochloride (cartap hydrochloride, CHC) 4% granule formulation. As per WHO, it is a moderately hazardous technical product and the maximal daily acceptable intake level is 0.05 mg/kg. 1