Herbicide safeners are organic compounds used to enhance the effectiveness of herbicides, to make them "safer". They minimize the effect of the herbicide on crop plants, thereby improving selectivity between crop plants vs. weed species being targeted by the herbicide. One way that they function is by enhancing the expression of protective enzymes in the crop plant. These protective enzymes might include cytochrome P450.
Herbicide safeners can be used to pretreat crop seeds prior to planting, or they can be sprayed on plants as a mixture with the herbicide.
Inventory
After the discovery of the safener properties of naphthalic anhydride, additional safeners were reported. They are associated with particular crops, such as benoxacor for maize and flurazole for sorghum.
Approximately 20 safeners were in use in 2023. The inventory:
- benoxacor
- BPCMS
- cloquintocet
- cyometrinil
- cyprosulfamide
- dichlormid
- dicyclonon
- dietholate
- fenchlorazole
- fenclorim
- flurazole
- fluxofenim
- furilazole
- isoxadifen
- jiecaowan
- jiecaoxi
- mefenpyr
- mephenate
- metcamifen
- naphthalic anhydride
- oxabetrinil
These safeners have been classified according to structural motifs.
Further reading
- Review: Davies, Joanna; Caseley, John C. (1999). "Herbicide safeners: A review". Pesticide Science. 55 (11): 1043–1058. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9063(199911)55:11<1043::AID-PS60>3.0.CO;2-L.
- Early pioneering report: Hoffmann, Otto L. (1953). "Inhibition of Auxin Effects by 2,4,6-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid". Plant Physiology. 28 (4): 622–628. doi:10.1104/pp.28.4.622. PMC 540425. PMID 16654579.
References
- Abu-Qare, AW; Duncan, HJ (2002). "Herbicide safeners: Uses, limitations, metabolism, and mechanisms of action". Chemosphere. 48 (9): 965–74. Bibcode:2002Chmsp..48..965A. doi:10.1016/S0045-6535(02)00185-6. PMID 12222792.
- Davies, Joanna (2001). "Herbicide safeners - commercial products and tools for agrochemical research". Pesticide Outlook. 12: 10–15. doi:10.1039/B100799H.
- Riechers, Dean E.; Kreuz, Klaus; Zhang, Qin (2010). "Detoxification without Intoxication: Herbicide Safeners Activate Plant Defense Gene Expression". Plant Physiology. 153 (1): 3–13. doi:10.1104/pp.110.153601. PMC 2862420. PMID 20237021.
- ^ Zhao, Yaning; Ye, Fei; Fu, Ying (2023). "Research Progress on the Action Mechanism of Herbicide Safeners: A Review". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 71 (8): 3639–3650. doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.2c08815. PMID 36794646. S2CID 256900178.
- Elmore, Matthew T.; Brosnan, James T.; Armel, Gregory R.; Vargas, Jose J.; Breeden, Gregory K. (2015). "Influence of Herbicide Safeners on Creeping Bentgrass ( Agrostis stolonifera ) Tolerance to Herbicides". Weed Technology. 29 (3): 550–560. doi:10.1614/WT-D-14-00045.1. S2CID 86197665.
- Su, Lei; Caywood, Leandra M.; Sivey, John D.; Dai, Ning (2019). "Sunlight Photolysis of Safener Benoxacor and Herbicide Metolachlor as Mixtures on Simulated Soil Surfaces". Environmental Science & Technology. 53 (12): 6784–6793. Bibcode:2019EnST...53.6784S. doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b01243. PMID 31132254. S2CID 167219731.
- "Compendium of Pesticide Common Names Herbicide Safeners".
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