Agrochemicals & Crop Science

Agrochemicals & crop science

The abcr product range includes a large selection of

building blocks, which are used as synthesis building blocks in the area of agrochemistry & crop science. 

Agrochemistry refers to an important subarea of chemistry as it deals with the research and development of chemical products for agriculture. Agrochemistry also encompasses an important industrial production area. In agriculture, agrochemical active agents maintain and protect healthy crops and also destroy undesired organisms (pests and weeds). 

The term pesticide especially refers to herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. These agrochemical active agents can be produced synthetically or naturally. Herbicides represent the greatest share. On the one hand, there are selective active agents that specifically kill off certain plants. Broad-spectrum herbicides, on the other hand, are effective against many different plants. Glyphosate is a prominent although controversial example of a broad herbicide. Glyphosate is an amino acid derivate that intervenes in the shikimate pathway of plants and inhibits the synthesis of aromatic amino acids such as L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine and L-tryptophan. Further examples are based on pyridine derivates as these provide the raw materials for the production of herbicides and insecticides. Pyrimidine derivates are used as a fungicidal active agent. Common fungicides also include anilinopyrimidines. They block the synthesis of amino acid methionine in the fungal metabolism and thereby inhibit intrusion into the plant and the growth in the leaf tissue. 

In addition to pyridines and pyrimidines, many other heterocyclic core structures can also be substituted with many different functional groups. Tailored innovative active agents can thereby also be developed for agricultural usage. Building blocks are often used as “libraries” in agrochemical research, as in pharmaceutical chemistry, which means that they constitute a carefully chosen selection of a few hundred to a thousand building blocks for screening new active agents. The abcr catalogue offers a choice of more than 200,000 building blocks.