To the best of our knowledge for today no method of IMI and its
main metabolite 6-chloronicotinic acid (6-ClNA) detection in biological
specimens has been presented in the literature. The simultaneous
detection and quantification of IMI and 6-CINA is a
prerequisite for a proper biomonitoring study, since after pesticide
absorption the parent compound is quickly metabolized to 6-CINA
by human cytochrome P450 isozymes (Schulz-Jander and Casida,
2002). In Fig. 1, the whole metabolic pathways of IMI are shown
as firstly presented by Solecki (2001). Since IMI is a widely used
insecticide for many applications, the necessity to establish an analytical
method for its detection and quantification in biological
specimens is very important for biomonitoring of human exposure
to this insecticide