Insecticidal and Nematicidal Activities of Novel Mimosine Derivatives

Mimosine, a non-protein amino acid, is found in several tropical and subtropical plants, which has high value for medicine and agricultural chemicals. Here, in continuation of works aimed to development of natural product-based pesticidal agents, we present the first significant findings for insecticidal and nematicidal activities of novel mimosine derivatives. Interestingly, mimosinol and deuterated mimosinol (D-mimosinol) from mimosine had strong insecticidal activity which could be a result of tyrosinase inhibition (IC50 = 31.4 and 46.1 μM, respectively). Of synthesized phosphoramidothionate derivatives from two these amino alcohols, two compounds (1a and 1b) showed high insecticidal activity (LD50 = 0.5 and 0.7 μg/insect, respectively) with 50%-60% mortality at 50 μg/mL which may be attributed to acetylcholinesterase inhibition. Compounds 1a and 1b also had strong nematicidal activity with IC50 = 31.8 and 50.2 μM, respectively. Our results suggest that the length of the alkyl chain and the functional group at the C₅-position of phosphoramidothionates derived from mimosinol and d-mimosinol are essential for the insecticidal and nematicidal activities. These results reveal an unexplored scaffold as new insecticide and nematicide.