Chemical fungicides are prevalent in agriculture and many of these products have a detrimental effect on human and animal health. Due to health concerns, some countries have even made steps to ban a number of these chemical fungicides.
"Despite efforts to develop natural protection, very few efficient solutions have been commercialized," explained Sylvain Dubey, a plant pathologist. "And there are still no effective environmentally friendly methods of combatting the fungal pathogens that infect large groups of crops."
Dubey and colleagues have utilized natural products derived from prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and plant species such as terpenes, phenols and alcohols, glycosides, alkaloids, and glucosinolate derivatives.
"Because of these results, we investigated the fungitoxic activity of natural isothiocyanate derivatives of glucosinolates as well as semi-synthetic derivatives and their synergy."
Their study was published in PhytoFrontiers journal, and confirmed that 13 natural and semi-synthetic glucosinolate derivatives are efficient fungicides against widespread genetically distant species of fungal plant pathogens.
"Interestingly, physico-chemical characteristics of fungitoxic glucosinolate derivatives differ from those showing no activities or from those that are known for their insecticidal or insect attractive properties," explained Dubey. "Indeed, fungitoxic compounds exhibit significantly higher bioaccumulation potential and are more lipophilic than compounds with no fungitoxic activities. It is therefore possible to anticipate the potential function of glucosinolate derivatives based on their physico-chemical properties and the differences in the way compounds will interact with the surrounding environment and hence organisms."