Propachlor (2-chloro-''N''-isopropylacetanilide) is an

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 ...

first marketed by Monsanto. It was registered for use in the United States during 1965. The preparation acts on annual

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es and on some broadleaf weeds and was briefly sold in the UK as a germination inhibitor under the name Murphy Covershield. Between 1987 and 1996, about 2.1 million pounds of its active ingredient were used in the United States. 75% was applied to

sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...

crops and 24% to

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

. Monsanto voluntarily discontinued its manufacture in 1998. It is currently listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's

Toxics Release Inventory The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available database containing information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities in the United States. Summary of requirements The database is available from the United St ...

. In 2008, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

issued a decision withdrawing its approval for use as of March 18, 2009, citing the presence of its

metabolite In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...

s in

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

. Propachlor was added to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's Proposition 65 list as a

carcinogen A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

in 2001.

Current manufacturers

It is currently being produced by Makhteshim Agan Group and Shenzhen Qinfeng Pesticides Co., Ltd.

References

External links

* {{Herbicides Herbicides Acetanilides Organochlorides Monsanto Isopropylamino compounds