Russian Scientists Discovered a New Class of Fungicides for Plant Protection and Crop Preservation
The substances based on stable organic peroxides not only exhibit high antifungal activity but also are safe for pollinating insects.
«None of the fungicides currently used for plant protection and crop preservation contains a peroxide moiety. A new class of fungicides was last time discovered in the 90s – these were strobilurins, and triazoles have been in use since as long ago as the 70s. Understanding of chemistry may let one think that peroxides are unstable and hazardous, and therefore are not useful. However, we developed compounds which are related to stable natural artemisinin peroxide. It and its derivatives are applied in medical practice to treat malaria. Moreover, they exhibit antiparasitic, anti-cancer, anti-tuberculosis and antiviral activity.” – says a senior researcher of ZIOC, PhD Ivan Yaremenko.
A research team led by Mikhail Syromyatnikov, an associate professor of Voronezh State University, conducted toxicity tests for pollinating insects. For that, they fed bumblebees with sugar syrup and studied the effect occurring at contact with fungicidal solutions. Cyclic peroxides proved nontoxic for bumblebees. They did not have adverse effect on the pollinating insect and its flying and, hence, pollinating activity.
Dr. Ivan A. Yaremenko, Peter S. Radulov, Yulia Y. Belyakova, Arina A. Demina, Dmitriy I. Fomenkov, Dr. Denis V. Barsukov, Dr. Irina R. Subbotina, Prof. Fabrice Fleury, Prof. Alexander O. Terent'ev Cover Feature: Catalyst Development for the Synthesis of Ozonides and Tetraoxanes Under Heterogeneous Conditions: Disclosure of an Unprecedented Class of Fungicides for Agricultural Application (Chem. Eur. J. 21/2020) DOI: 10.1002/chem.202000923
Ivan A. Yaremenko, Mikhail Y. Syromyatnikov, Peter S. Radulov, Yulia Yu. Belyakova, Dmitriy I. Fomenkov, Vasily N. Popov, Alexander O. Terent’ev Cyclic Synthetic Peroxides Inhibit Growth of Entomopathogenic Fungus Ascosphaera apis without Toxic Effect on Bumblebees (Molecules 2020) DOI: 10.3390/molecules25081954