Discovery of pyridine-based agrochemicals by using Intermediate Derivatization Methods

Pyridine-based compounds have been playing a crucial role as agrochemicals or pesticides including fungicides, insecticides/acaricides and herbicides, etc. Since most of the agrochemicals listed in the Pesticide Manual were discovered through screening programs that relied on trial-and-error testing and new agrochemical discovery is not benefiting as much from the in silico new chemical compound identification/discovery techniques used in pharmaceutical research, it has become more important to find new methods to enhance the efficiency of discovering novel lead compounds in the agrochemical field to shorten the time of research phases in order to meet changing market requirements. In this review, we selected 18 representative known agrochemicals containing a pyridine moiety and extrapolate their discovery from the perspective of Intermediate Derivatization Methods in the hope that this approach will have greater appeal to researchers engaged in the discovery of agrochemicals and/or pharmaceuticals.