natural-products-in-plant-pest-management

3 Natural Products from Plants:Commercial Prospectsin Terms of Antimicrobial,Herbicidal and Bio-stimulatoryActivities in an Integrated PestManagement SystemJ.C. PRETORIUS AND E. VAN DER WATTDepartment of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences, University of the FreeState, Bloemfontein, South AfricaAbstractThe use of natural products developed from wild plants is gaining interest andmomentum throughout the world in both developed and developing countries. Indeveloping countries the use of natural plant extracts is simply the result of the inabilityof subsistence farmers to afford commercial synthetic pesticides. However, indeveloped countries this is largely due to consumer resistance towards syntheticchemicals, including antimicrobial, herbicidal and bio-stimulatory agents, believed tobe potentially hazardous to the environment and human health. In this chapter anoverview of the latter three pesticide groups is supplied in terms of its current ‘naturalproduct’ status from an integrated pest management perspective as it is applied inthe agricultural industry. First, some background is provided in order to cover thehistory of natural product development in these three pesticide categories. Second, ashort synopsis of screening programmes that identified wild plants containing naturalcompounds which have the potential to be considered in natural product developingprogrammes is supplied. Lastly, the outcome of these development programmesthat realized commercialized natural products is covered.3.1 IntroductionPlant diseases cause large yield losses throughout the world and all importantfood crops are attacked with disastrous consequences for food security.In many cases, plant diseases may be successfully controlled with syntheticfungicides, but this is costly to African peasantry and often has disadvantagesand side effects on the ecosystem (De Neergaard, 2001). It is, however,© CAB International 2011. Natural Products in Plant Pest Management42 (ed. N.K. Dubey)