The most popular pesticides in the world all have one thing in
common...methyl bromide. Unfortunately, methyl bromide will be banned from pesticide
use in the year 2000 because it is damaging to the ozone layer. So the race is on to
find a replacement.
Joel Coats and Greg Tylka of Iowa
State University have the upper hand so far. They began by isolating a chemical
called 1-cyano-2-hydroxy-3-butene (CHB) from a plant called crambe. To help increase
the potency of CHB, it was modified into a shorter, more reactive molecule called
1-cyano-1-hydroxy-2-propene (CHP).
Although CHP will be more expensive to produce, it will
be considerably safer. CHP is fully biodegradable and is much less hazardous to
mammals than methyl bromide. This is not only good news for farm animals, but also
for people using the insecticides.
