Malathion
chemical compound
Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide which acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. In the USSR, it was known as carbophos, in New Zealand and Australia as maldison and in South Africa as mercaptothion.
Pesticide use
Malathion is a pesticide that is widely used in agriculture, residential landscaping, public recreation areas, and in public health pest control programs such as mosquito eradication. In the US, it is the most commonly used organophosphate insecticide.
A malathion mixture with corn syrup was used in the 1980s in Australia to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly. In Canada and the US starting in the early 2000s, malathion was sprayed in many cities to combat west Nile virus.
In the United Kingdom, malathion was withdrawn from sale in 2002.
Mechanism of action
Malathion is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, a diverse family of chemicals. Upon uptake into the target organism, it binds irreversibly to the serine residue in the active catalytic site of the cholinesterase enzyme. The resultant phosphoester group is strongly bound to the cholinesterase, and irreversibly deactivates the enzyme which leads to rapid build-up of acetylcholine at the synapse.
The public source identifies “Malathion” as chemical compound. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Malathion, chemical and compound.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q423005. The Library of Congress control number is sh91004490. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Malathion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.