The story of a new insecticidal chemistry class: the diamides

This paper describes the story of the invention of the diamides, a novel chemical class of insecticides. It starts with the pioneering work by Nihon Nohyaku researchers, who developed a herbicide lead with weak insecticidal activity to flubendiamide, a highly potent lepidoptericide. The journey continues with Nissan's isoxazolines and the invention of the anthranilamides by DuPont, culminating in the discovery of the blockbuster chlorantraniliprole and its analogue cyantraniliprole. The next steps are Syngenta's sulfoximines and bicyclic anthranilamides, Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha's cyclopropylamides, Sumitomo's hydrazides, Bayer's pyrazoles and tetrazoles, BASF's sulfoximines and more recent contributions from Chinese agrochemical companies and academic institutions. The diamides affect calcium homeostasis by binding to ryanodine receptors and releasing calcium from the intracellular stores. Investigations at Nihon Nohyaku, DuPont and Bayer on the action of the diamides on ryanodine receptors will be briefly reported.