Dabbling in Agrichemical Development with Natural Product and Synthetic Carbocyclic Leads: A Personal Synthetic Perspective

Craig M. Williams

School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland,

Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia.

Both natural products and synthetics have played a pivotal role in crop protection, and food security in general. However, pest infestations of crops and stored grains, for example, continue to impact food moving to market for reasons such as insect resistance and the advent of emerging species. It is for these reasons that innovation in new chemical entity discovery, whether natural product or of synthetic origin, be constantly pursued. Our group has recently completed work in both areas, and now wish to present a side by side comparison highlighting synthetic positives and negatives.