Natural Products As Sources for New Pesticides

Abstract

Natural products as pesticides have been reviewed from several perspectives in the past, but no prior treatment has examined the impact of natural product and natural product-based pesticides on the U.S. market, as a function of new active ingredient registrations with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Thus, EPA registration details of new active ingredients for all conventional pesticide registrations and biopesticide registrations were compiled from the years 1997-2010. Conventional pesticide registrations and biopesticide registrations were examined both collectively and independently for all 277 new active ingredients (NAI) and subsequently categorized and sorted into four types: biological (B), natural product (NP), synthetic (S), and synthetic natural derived (SND). When examining conventional pesticides alone, the S category accounted for the majority of NAI registrations, with 78.0%, followed by SND with 14.7%, NP with 6.4%, and B with 0.9%. Biopesticides alone were dominated by NPs with 54.8%, followed by B with 44.6%, SND with 0.6%, and 0% for S. When examining conventional pesticides and biopesticides combined, NPs accounted for the majority of NAI registrations, with 35.7%, followed by S with 30.7%, B with 27.4%, and SND with 6.1%. Despite the common perception that natural products may not be the best sources for NAI as pesticides, when both conventional and biopesticides are examined collectively, and considering that NP, SND, and B all have origins from natural product research, it can be argued that their combined impact with the EPA from 1997 to 2010 accounted for 69.3% of all NAI registrations.

Herbicidal Activity of Monoterpenes Is Associated with Disruption of Microtubule Functionality and Membrane Integrity

“…These encompass 91.9% of the new active ingredients registered, whereas 8.1% are synthetic active ingredients derived from natural sources (Cantrell et al 2012).…”

Efeito fitotóxico do óleo volátil de Cleome guianensis Aubl. sobre o crescimento inicial de Senna occidentalis L.

“…Devido aos efeitos adversos decorrentes da utilização de herbicidas sintéticos, tais como a acumulação de resíduos tóxicos no ambiente, o desenvolvimento de resistência pela planta e as consequências indesejadas para os organismos não alvo (Jana & Biswas, 2011), muitos pesquisadores vêm priorizando estudos sobre agricultura sustentável, em busca de substâncias vegetais para serem utilizadas no controle de plantas daninhas (Dayan et al, 2009;Cantrell et al, 2012). Alguns metabólitos, majoritariamente provenientes do metabolismo secundário, liberados por espécies vegetais, denominados aleloquímicos, interferem na sobrevivência de outros vegetais no ambiente, influenciando no seu crescimento e induzindo, como defesa, o estresse oxidativo (Bogatek & Gniazdowska, 2007).…”

Efficacy of extracts from plants of the Brazilian Pantanal against Rhipicephalus (Boophilus)microplus

“…Due to this reduction in the susceptibility to current acaricidals, there has been an increase in the development of studies using natural products to search for new active ingredients (NEEWMAN;CRAGG, 2012). A survey of the records from the United States Environmental Protection Agency between 1997 and 2010 shows that 69.3% of the new pesticide registrations originated from research on natural products; the success of several of these substances is what sustains this type of research (CANTRELL et al, 2012).…”