Structure-toxicity relationship of monoketones.

The structure-toxicity relationship of monoketones was examined in mice. In all test compounds, the acute oral toxicity (LD50) was determined under two conditions; control LD50 (LD50-cont.) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-pretreated LD50 (LD50CCl4). LD50-cont. was larger than LD50-CCl4 in all test compounds, the difference being greater in compounds with longer carbon chains than in those with shorter chains. Both LD50-cont. and LD50-CCl4 were parabolic functions of the partition coefficient, log P, i.e., log (1/LD50-cont.) = -0.120(log P)2 + 0.417log P - 1.734 and log(1/LD50-CCl4) = -0.103(log P)2 + 0.462log P - 1.660, and both equations were statistically significant (P less than 0.01). The log Po values were 1.74 for the former and 2.24 for the latter.