Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » Natural Products Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #399078
Research Project: Discovery and Development of Natural Product-Based Pesticides and Pharmaceuticals

Location: Natural Products Utilization Research

Title: Natural product-based crop protection compounds - origins and future prospects

Author
item SPARKS, THOMAS - University Of Mississippi
item SPARKS, JANINE - University Of Mississippi
item DUKE, STEPHEN - University Of Mississippi

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/3/2023
Publication Date: 1/24/2023
Citation: Sparks, T.C., Sparks, J.M., Duke, S.O. 2023. Natural product-based crop protection compounds - origins and future prospects. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c06938.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c06938

Interpretive Summary: The continuing need to protect food and fiber production in order to address the needs of an expanding global population requires new pest management tools for crop protection. Natural products (NPs) have been and continue to be a key source of inspiration for new active ingredients (AIs) for crop protection accounting for 17% of all crop protection AIs. However, potentially 50% of all crop protection compounds have or could have a NP origin if NP synthetic equivalents (NPSE: synthetic compounds discovered by other approaches, but for which a NP model also happens to exist) are also considered. The real and hypothetical NPs have their greatest impact as inspiration for new classes of crop protections compounds. Among the different product areas, NPs have largest influence on the discovery of new insecticides, while herbicides have been the least impacted. While plants have historically been the largest (60% of the total) source of NPs of AIs for crop protection, in the last 30 years bacterial NPs have become the largest source (42% of the total) of new classes (first-in-class) of NP-inspired crop protection AIs. Interest in NPs for crop protection continues, an aspect that is highlighted by the notable rise in the numbers of publications and patents on this topic, especially in the last 20 years. The present analysis further illustrates the on-going interest in NPs as sources of and inspiration for new classes of crop protection compounds.

Technical Abstract: The continuing need to protect food and fiber production in order to address the needs of an expanding global population requires new pest management tools for crop protection. Natural products (NPs) have been and continue to be a key source of inspiration for new active ingredients (AIs) for crop protection accounting for 17% of all crop protection AIs. However, potentially 50% of all crop protection compounds have or could have a NP origin if NP synthetic equivalents (NPSE: synthetic compounds discovered by other approaches, but for which a NP model also happens to exist) are also considered. The real and hypothetical NPs have their greatest impact as inspiration for new classes of crop protections compounds. Among the different product areas, NPs have largest influence on the discovery of new insecticides, while herbicides have been the least impacted. While plants have historically been the largest (60% of the total) source of NPs of AIs for crop protection, in the last 30 years bacterial NPs have become the largest source (42% of the total) of new classes (first-in-class) of NP-inspired crop protection AIs. Interest in NPs for crop protection continues, an aspect that is highlighted by the notable rise in the numbers of publications and patents on this topic, especially in the last 20 years. The present analysis further illustrates the on-going interest in NPs as sources of and inspiration for new classes of crop protection compounds.