Helping herbicides work

摘要

Herbicide 'safeners', as suggested by their name, selectively protect crops from herbicide damage, without reducing activity in target weed species. Herbicide, when applied alone, would either not be sufficiently active on the weeds at lower dose levels, or would cause some crop injury at the higher dose levels required for satisfactory weed control. Safeners may be chemical or biological agents that reduce the toxicity of herbicides to crop plants by physiological or molecular mechanisms. These arealso known as antidotes, protectants or antagonists, although safener avoids much of the possible confusion with other compounds or types of activity and is now the generally accepted term.