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EBDC fungicides protect over 70 crops like tomatoes, potatoes and fruits, from fungal diseases such as Black Rot, Downy Mildew, Alternaria, and Late Blight (shown here left to right)
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Fungal organisms cause disease, so fungicides can be thought of as medicines for the plants. Historically, the consequences of plant disease have been devastating, causing wide-spread crop failure as well as human suffering throughout the world.
Plant Diseases Bring Devastation
St. Anthony’s Fire. In 1089, a strange and deadly malady known as St. Anthony’s Fire swept through northern Europe, and in 1692 a similar disease struck Salem, Massachusetts in North America. Many of those stricken exhibited bizarre behavior, leading their neighbors to suspect they were possessed by evil spirits. While the cause of these symptoms was eventually determined to be a fungal disease, ergot, many innocent victims had been punished for practicing witchcraft before the true cause was known.
Knowing, however, that diseases were caused by natural rather than supernatural forces did not lessen the impact these diseases had on civilization.
Late Blight. In the 1840s, for example, an epidemic of late blight caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans, generated a potato famine in Ireland and northern Europe that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the forced emigration of more than a million others.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in the fight for disease control was the discovery of ethylenebisdithiocarbamate (EBDC) chemistry in the early 1940s. EBDCs have enjoyed a long period of effective use because of their broad spectrum of activity and their multi-site mode of action which leads to a lack of resistance. There are no lower risk, more effective, more economical fungicides with the broad range of fungicidal activity than the EBDCs.
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