Nippon Soda revives new application of flupoxam

Nippon Soda may have found a new application as a turf herbicide for the forgotten active ingredient, flupoxam. Kureha discovered the herbicide and developed it in collaboration with Monsanto for the cereals market of eastern Europe. However, the joint venture between the two companies, Synexus, was dissolved in 1995 after flupoxam failed to perform as expected and the ai was discontinued.

However, between 2003 and 2005, Nippon Soda submitted flupoxam, under the code DH-024, for official Japanese field trials. The herbicide was tested for the control of annual weeds in turf by pre-emergence application. Recently, Nippon Soda claimed formulations comprising flupoxam in patent WO2008018501. This activity from the Japanese company points to a possible re-emergence of the herbicide as a marketable product.