Carboxin:Uses,Toxicity,Environmental Fate

Carboxin is a systemic fungicide used to control seed and seedling diseases; (smut, rot, blight) on barley, beans, canola, corn, cotton, oats, onions, peanuts, rice,rye, safflower, sorghum, soybeans, triticale, and wheat. Formulations include wettable powder, dust, flowable concentrate, emulsifiable concentrate, and ready to-use liquid.

Uses

Carboxin is a systemic anilide fungicide. It is used as a seed treatment for control of smut, rot, and blight on barley, oats, rice, cotton, vegetables, corn, and wheat. It is also used to control fairy rings on turf grass. Carboxin may be used to prevent the formation of these diseases or may be used to cure existing plant diseases.

Toxicity

Carboxin has been shown to have low acute toxicity. Toxicity Categories, which range from I (most toxic) to IV (least toxic), were III for the oral route of exposure, IV for inhalation, and III for dermal. Carboxin is a slight eye irritant (Toxicity Category III), is not a skin irritant (Toxicity Category IV), and is negative for dermal sensitization. The mechanism of toxicity for carboxin has not been fully investigated; however the primary target organs appear to be the liver and kidney. In carcinogenicity studies in rats and mice, carboxin did not demonstrate any significant evidence of carcinogenic potential.

Environmental Fate

Carboxin is a very mobile compound that degrades rapidly in soil by aerobic metabolism with a mean half-life of 1.25 days. Carboxin degraded much more slowly in anaerobic soil with a half-life of 128 days. In both aerobic and anaerobic soil studies, the predominant degradate was carboxin sulfoxide which forms quickly, is more persistent, and is more mobile than the parent compound. Based on the structure of carboxin sulfoxide, the toxicity of the sulfoxide degradate is likely comparable to that of the parent compound carboxin.