Design, synthesis and acaricidal activity of novel strobilurin derivatives containing pyrimidine moieties

The intermediate derivatisation method based on bioisosteric replacement led to the discovery of the lead strobilurin compound 5a. To produce new strobilurin analogues with improved activity, a series of substituted pyrimidines were synthesised and bioassayed.

The compounds were identified by (1)H NMR, IR, MS and elemental analysis. The highly active compound 5 g was studied by X-ray diffraction. Preliminary bioassays demonstrated that some of the title compounds exhibited excellent acaricidal activity against Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisd.) at 10 mg L(-1). The relationship between structure and acaricidal activity is reported.

The present work demonstrates that strobilurin derivatives containing pyrimidine moieties can be used as possible lead compounds for developing novel acaricides.