Environmentally Friendly Alkylphosphonate Herbicides

Hong-Wu He, Hao Peng, Xiao-Song Tan

This book presents essential research on a class of environmentally friendly alkylphosphonate herbicides. This class of herbicides acted as a competitive inhibitor of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc) to control weeds. The bioreasoning and systematic approach, from basic research to field tests of candidate compounds, are introduced. The basic research covers the molecular design, chemical synthesis, biological activities evaluation, structure-activity relationship analysis and structural optimization. Subsequently, the book reviews the biochemistry of PDHc inhibitors, the selectivity between mammals and plants, and the mechanism of herbicidal activity of novel alkylphosphonates as selective PDHc inhibitors. Field trials for selected alkylphosphonate candidates as herbicides are also included. This book provides a sound basis for the rational design and development of novel...