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Review
. 2018 Apr 17:13:29-37.
doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2018.04.001. eCollection 2018 Sep.

A minireview on what we have learned about urease inhibitors of agricultural interest since mid-2000s

Luzia V Modolo  1 , Cristiane J da-Silva  1 , Débora S Brandão  1 , Izabel S Chaves  1
Affiliations
Review

A minireview on what we have learned about urease inhibitors of agricultural interest since mid-2000s

Luzia V Modolo et al. J Adv Res. .

Abstract

World population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, which makes a great challenge the achievement of food security. The use of urease inhibitors in agricultural practices has long been explored as one of the strategies to guarantee food supply in enough amounts. This is due to the fact that urea, one of the most used nitrogen (N) fertilizers worldwide, rapidly undergoes urease-driven hydrolysis on soil surface yielding up to 70% N losses to environment. This review provides with a compilation of what has been done since 2005 with respect to the search for good urease inhibitors of agricultural interests. The potential of synthetic organic molecules, such as phosphoramidates, hydroquinone, quinones, (di)substituted thioureas, benzothiazoles, coumarin and phenolic aldehyde derivatives, and vanadium-hydrazine complexes, together with B, Cu, S, Zn, ammonium thiosulfate, silver nanoparticles, and oxidized charcoal as urease inhibitors was presented from experiments with purified jack bean urease, different soils and/or plant-soil systems. The ability of some urease inhibitors to mitigate formation of greenhouse gases is also discussed.

Keywords: Crop production; Nitrogen fertilizer; Pollution mitigation; Urea; Urease inhibitors.

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Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Structure of phosphoramidates that present notable inhibitory effect on ureases. The phosphoramide derivative derivatives (PAD) exemplified from Ref. .
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Structure of hydroquinone and quinones of recognized potential as urease inhibitor of agricultural interest.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Structure of (di)substituted thiourea derivatives of known antiureolytic activity in the scope of agriculture. The benzoylthioureas (BTUs) exemplified from Ref. while the disubstituted thioureas (DSTUs) come from Ref. .
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Structure of benzothiazoles (BZTs) of recognized potential as urease inhibitors of agricultural interest. Compounds are based on Ref. .
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Structure of coumarinyl pyrazolinyl thiomides (CPTs) of recognized potential as urease inhibitor of agricultural interest. Compounds are based on Ref. .
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Structure of natural phenolic aldehyde derivatives reported to inhibit soil ureases. Compounds are based on Ref. .
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Structure of non-phytotoxic dimeric vanadium-hydrazine complexes (DVHCs) known to inhibit urease. Compounds are based on Ref. .
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