Herbicide Safeners: Effective Tools to Improve Herbicide Selectivity

Herbicide safeners, formerly referred to as herbicide antidotes, are chemical agents that increase the tolerance of monocotyledonous cereal plants to herbicides without affecting the weed control effectiveness. The use of safeners offer several benefits to agricultural weed control. Safeners may allow: (1) the selective chemical control of weeds in botanically related crops; (2) the use of nonselective herbicides for selective weed control; (3) the counteraction of residual activity of soil-applied persistent herbicides such as triazines in crop rotation systems; (4) an increase in the spectrum of herbicides available for weed control in “minor” crops; (5) an expansion and extension of the uses and marketability of generic herbicides; (6) the elucidation of sites and mechanism by serving as useful biochemical tools [1]. The commercial viability of safener concept is indicated by the growing number of herbicide-safener products available on the pesticide market. With the use of safeners, difficult weed control problems can be addressed and without safeners, many herbicidally active substances could have never been applied for weed control [2].