Downloaded by UNIV OF WOLLONGONG on May 9, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: November 3, 1987 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1987-0355.pr001
Preface ^REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES have linked chemistry with agriculture during this century. Agricultural chemicals, properly chosen and applied, offer great benefit to food and fiber producers and consumers alike. The need for new agrochemicals has not abated. Indeed, the growing demand for safe and effective agricultural chemicals has spurred major research effort for new products. The prime goal of researchers is discovering materials that will economically control plant pathogens, insect pests, and weeds and at the same time be of minimal risk to humans and the environment in general. The challenge for scientists who seek to discover and develop new crop protection chemicals has escalated dramatically. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to satisfy the many safety requirements of the various regulatory agencies. The costs associated with development of a new agrochemical are escalating. Until recently, the challenge has been compounded by the lack of regular scientific interchange among those chemists involved in the discovery process. With the ever-increasing world population, the assistance that these new compounds bring to food production is critical. We hope that the work reported here will be useful to those who accept this challenge. We have organized a series of symposia at each national meeting of the American Chemical Society, beginning with the St. Louis meeting in 1984. The aim of these symposia has been to provide a forum for presenting the synthesis and chemistry of new agrochemical agents. In addition, chemists have seized their opportunity to discuss the biological properties of the new materials. These symposia are providing a focus for agricultural chemists. In a similar vein, we hope that this book will provide a view of the current synthetic effort in the agrochemical field. In this volume, a variety of topics has been assembled, ranging from that first symposium to the recent one held in Anaheim in 1986. The chapters in this collection show varied approaches to the discovery process in the agrochemical field, and they represent the current status of these synthetic efforts. The information has been updated to convey the current state of the endeavor. In the past, publication of new synthetic chemistry and the structures of novel agrochemicals has been largely in the patent literature because most of the major advances come from the agrochemical industry. Many
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Downloaded by UNIV OF WOLLONGONG on May 9, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: November 3, 1987 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1987-0355.pr001
interesting discoveries have not been made accessible because the compounds lacked commercial potential. The agrochemical synthesis symposia have provided at least a parallel avenue for synthesis chemists to make their discoveries public. Furthermore, these symposia provide a unique forum for this assemblage of pesticide chemistry. Because most of the synthetic effort in the U.S. agrochemical industry is devoted to the development of new herbicides and insecticides, much of the information found in this book is devoted to these two major fields. An effort was also made to give representation to the other important areas of agrochemical synthesis. We particularly appreciate the efforts of those who provided these extraordinary chapters. We express appreciation to the authors for sharing this large amount of useful chemistry and, most importantly, for sharing their practical insight into the workings of biologically active molecules. We thank the companies and organizations that have cleared much of this work for publication. We hope that by providing an overview of the chemical and biochemical tools available for agrochemical discovery and by sharing viewpoints of many scientists, this volume can contribute to continuing the successful partnership of chemistry and agriculture. D O N R. B A K E R
ICI Americas Inc. Richmond, C A 94804 JOSEPH G. F E N Y E S
Buckman Laboratories, Inc. Memphis, TN 38108 WILLIAM K. MOBERG
Agricultural Products Department E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Wilmington, D E 19898 BARRINGTON CROSS
Agricultural Research Division American Cyanamid Company Princeton, NJ 08540 June 9, 1987
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