ABSTRACT
Pesticide use continues to increase worldwide, and around 3 million tons of industrial pesticides per year are used nowadays. The registration of a pesticide for its application on a particular crop requires a complete set of data to prove its efficacy and safe use. This normally includes data on physicochemical properties, analytical methods, efficacy, toxicology, ecotoxicology, and fate and behavior in the environment. Moreover, residues left on crops after pesticide application have been restricted in developed countries to guarantee safe food consumption.
In this chapter, the main classes of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, are described. New pesticides developed in the past three decades have been included together with representative compounds of the main classes.
This chapter provides information regarding their main physicochemical properties, mode of action and principal uses, as well as the toxicity and risk assessment of their use. This will constitute a valuable source of data for researchers interested in pesticide science.
