Fluridone is an
organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The ...
that is used as aquatic
herbicide
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weedkillers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page fo ...
often used to control
invasive plants. It is used in the United States to control
hydrilla
''Hydrilla'' (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from ...
and
Eurasian watermilfoil
''Myriophyllum spicatum'' (Eurasian watermilfoil or spiked water-milfoil) is native to Europe, Asia, and north Africa, but has a wide geographic and climatic distribution among some 57 countries, extending from northern Canada to South Africa. It ...
among other species. Fluridone is sold as a solution and as a slow release solid because the herbicide level must be maintained for several weeks. The compound is a colorless solid.
[Franz Müller and Arnold P. Applebyki "Weed Control, 2. Individual Herbicides" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry 2010 ]
The compound was first reported as a possible herbicide for cotton fields in 1976. It was registered with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
in 1986 and has low toxicity to animals with no restrictions on swimming or drinking in treated water bodies. Fluridone breaks down in the environment over days or weeks with the major degradation product being N-methyl formamide. The half-life of fluridone in soils and sediments has been estimated at nine months. Fluridone degradation in soil and saturated sediment has been correlated with temperature and clay content, while fluridone degradation in water is largely dependent on UV light exposure.
Fluridone transport through the soil, vadose zone, and aquifer is limited by its strong sorbance to organic matter.
Molecular target
Fluridone is a systemic herbicide that works by interfering with
carotene
The term carotene (also carotin, from the Latin ''carota'', "carrot") is used for many related unsaturated hydrocarbon substances having the formula C40Hx, which are synthesized by plants but in general cannot be made by animals (with the exc ...
formation which leads to chlorophyll degradation. Fluridone and are inhibitors of
chloroplast
A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...
ic and
cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...
l
Phytoene desaturase, which in turn disrupts the
carotenoid
Carotenoids (), also called tetraterpenoids, are yellow, orange, and red organic compound, organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, and Fungus, fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpki ...
biosynthetic pathway.
Pharmaceutical
Fluridone's main action to disrupt photosynthesis in plants is by preventing the secretion of
abscisic acid
Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone. ABA functions in many plant developmental processes, including seed and bud dormancy, the control of organ size and stomatal closure. It is especially important for plants in the response to environmental s ...
. As higher
eukaryotes
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...
, such as humans, also rely on an abscisic acid pathway to create inflammation in normal physiological processes, fluridone could be investigated as being of interest in the development of anti-inflammatory agents.
Biodegradation
Fluridone degrades in soil and upon exposure to sunlight with approximate halflives of 21 and 1 day, respectively.
[
]
See also
*Stormy Lake (Alaska)
Stormy Lake is a lake on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, also known as Three Bay Lake. It is located north of the town of Kenai. The lake has been the target of two efforts to eradicate invasive species and re-introduce native flora and fish.
N ...
, a lake that was treated with fluridone to remove invasive ''Elodea
''Elodea'' is a genus of 6 species of aquatic plants often called the waterweeds described as a genus in 1803. Classified in the frog’s-bit family (Hydrocharitaceae), ''Elodea'' is native to the Americas and is also widely used as aquarium vege ...
'', an aquatic plant.
References
{{reflist
External links
EPA Substance Registry
entry for Fluridone
BREDA list of 1,5-Cis-Phytoene desaturase inhibitors
Herbicides
Trifluoromethyl compounds
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
4-Pyridones