Current Challenges and Trends in the Discovery of Agrochemicals

Abstract

Crop protection chemistry has come a long way from its "alchemic" beginnings in the late 19th century to a high-tech science that supports the sustainable production of food, feed, and fiber for a rapidly growing population. Cutting-edge developments in the design and synthesis of agrochemicals help to tackle today's challenges of weed and pest resistance, higher regulatory safety margins, and higher cost of goods with the invention of selective, environmentally benign, low use rate, and cost-effective active ingredients.

An agenda for integrated system-wide interdisciplinary agri-food research

“…Thus, increasing the availability of nitrogen and phosphorus to plant roots via soil microbe activity has emerged as another research target (Cameron 2010). Similarly, research on pests and diseases, a second major factor in the yield gap, is assuming new urgency as a result of many external factors, including resistance to agrochemicals, the effects of climate change and efforts to conserve biodiversity (Lamberth et al 2013). Like many effects of climate change it is thought that LMICs will be most affected.…”

Lethal and sublethal effects of azadirachtin on the bumblebee Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…[1][2][3] Consequently, the concern regarding the risk of pesticide exposure to bee species has been increasing 4,5 , since such compounds may cause a variety of sublethal effects and impair development, reproduction and behaviour of these pollinators. [6][7][8][9][10] Faced with potential risks of pesticides, a new challenge lies in the search for new compounds that are considered less harmful 11 .…”

Bioactive Molecules: Translating Chemical and Biological Information from Yeast through Arabidopsis to Crops

“…These rules outlines favorable physicochemical properties to get bioactive compounds, molecular weight (Da) ≤500, logP (octanol/ water partition coefficient) ≤ 5, Number of H-bond donor ≤5, Number of H-bond acceptor ≤10, Rotatable bonds ≤12 [8]. Application of small bioactive molecules as a strategy to systematically screen for novel modifiers of a biological phenomenon of interest have gained increasing attention [10]. These approach, named chemical genomics, combines chemistry and biology along with bioinformatics which is required for data mining, structure analysis, data sharing and the extraction of useful data [11].…”