Abstract
This thesis contains an account of the work which was carried out between January 1969 and July 1971 at Tunstall Laboratory, Shell Research. Ltd. Sittingbourne, and at the University of Surrey under the guidance of Dr. J. Robinson and Professor D. V. Parke, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. A full review of the published literature on the metabolism of aldrin, dieldrin, endrin and isodrin, and also of the photoisomer of dieldrin is included in the thesis. The work which is reported includes a study of the metabolism of endrin by the rat, including descriptions of the isolation and identification of three previously unknown metabolites. Dieldrin metabolism has been extensively studied. Structural studies of the main rat metabolite are given, together with a comparison of the metabolism of dieldrin by the rat and the mouse. This work led to the isolation and identification of a previously unknown metabolite and also to the unequivocable demonstration of the presence of a further metabolite whose presence in rat faeces had been suspected but not proved by other workers. Other unidentified metabolic products were also found in the urine of the mouse. Preliminary studies were made of the metabolism of dieldrin by the Rhesus monkey, resulting in the detection of a previously known metabolite in the faeces of that animal. Studies with rat bile are also reported, although there has been no break-through in this particular field because of experimental difficulties. A short section is devoted to study of the metabolism of the photoisomer of dieldrin by the rat and the dog. With both of these animals a metabolite was isolated from the tissues which proved to be the same as a previously isolated metabolite of dieldrin.