Natural Product Chemistry in Agriculture

The world today is confronted with numerous challenges of climate shifts, pollution and biodiversity losses besides the need for sustainable production for the ever-escalating populations. Natural product chemistry has a vital role to play in overcoming the challenge of food security with safer options in the agricultural industry. Amongst the different pathogens affecting production, plant-parasitic nematodes are economically important pathogens decreasing the quality and quantity of the yield produced. Current technologies for the management of these new methods are held accountable for several environmental problems or the release of hazardous substances and the generation of toxic products. The rich plant wealth is bestowed with a number of natural compounds which have potent biological entities. These biologically active plant products represent excellent scaffolds for the synthesis of eco-friendly chemicals for their use by the agrochemical industry. The present chapter focuses on the exploitation of these natural compounds as green candidates for the management of the plant-parasitic nematodes infesting different crops and decreasing their yields. The overview of the progress in the natural product chemistry discipline, its role and the potential of the different environmental friendly phytochemicals for their application has been outlined in this chapter.