Review on the Discovery of Novel Natural Herbicide Safeners

The phytotoxicity of herbicides on crops is a major dilemmainagricultural production. Fortunately, the emergence of herbicide safenersis an excellent solution to this challenge, selectively enhancingthe performance of herbicides in controlling weeds while reducingthe phytotoxicity to crops. But owing to their potential toxicity,only a tiny proportion of safeners are commercially available. Naturalproducts as safeners have been extensively explored, which are generallysafe to mammals and cause little pollution to the environment. Theyare typically endogenous signal molecules or phytohormones, whichare generally difficult to extract and synthesize, and exhibit relativelylower activity than commercial products. Therefore, it is necessaryto adopt rational design approaches to modify the structure of naturalsafeners. This paper reviews the application, safener effects, structuralcharacteristics, and modifications of natural safeners and providesinsights on the discovery of natural products as potential safenersin the future.