A herbicide, sodium pentachlorophenoxide (Na-PCP), used in Japan, is easily de-composed with sunlight after its application in the rice field. The photochemical reaction of Na-PCP in an aqueous solution on exposure to sunlight afforded numerous products which were mainly accompanied with chloranilic acid and a yellow compound (I). The chemical structure of the yellow compound I was established as being 3, 4, 5-trichloro-6-(2'-hydroxy-3', 4', 5', 6'-tetrachlorophenoxy)-o-benzoquinone by chemical and spectroscopic evidences.
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Kuwahara et al. (1966) studied this question.