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Anne Marie's Chemistry Blog

By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., About.com Guide to Chemistry since 2001

Pesticides are Toxic to Mitochondria

Tuesday November 11, 2003
My first impulse upon reading this article was to say, 'well, duh!'. After all, most pesticides work by disrupting the biochemical reactions of aerobic cellular respiration... which takes place in the mitochondria. Anway, scientists at Emory School of Medicine have verified that several pesticides (pyridaben, fenazaquin, fenpyroximate, and rotenone) are toxic to mitochondria under laboratory conditions. The pesticides act on the mitochondria by inhibiting an enzyme called complex I. The research may have implications for understanding the development of Parkinson's disease, which is associated with mitochondrial abnormalities. For more info, read the article at Science News Daily.
Toxic Chemicals|Biochemistry

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