Xylachlor is a selective
herbicide
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weed killers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page f ...
, used to pre-emergently control annual grasses on cereals, wheat, soy and rice. It is an
anilide and a (chloro)
acetanilide. As of 2023 it is considered obsolete, but may still be in use.
It was manufactured by
American Cyanamid
American Cyanamid Company was an American manufacturing conglomerate. It began as a fertilizer company and added many additional lines of business before merging with American Home Products in 1994. The combined company sold off most of its di ...
under the "Combat" trademark,
registered in August 1979 and expired (by non-renewal) in 1986.
Compared to the fellow acetanilides
alachlor
Alachlor is an herbicide from the chloroacetanilide family. It is an odorless, white solid. The greatest use of alachlor is for control of annual grasses and broadleaf weeds in crops. Use of alachlor is illegal in the European Union and no prod ...
,
acetochlor and
metolachlor
Metolachlor is an organic compound that is widely used as an herbicide. It is a derivative of aniline and is a member of the chloroacetanilide family of herbicides. It is highly effective toward grasses.
Agricultural use
Metolachlor was develo ...
, xylachlor had the weakest control of
pigweed and
setaria, though the greatest selectivity. Xylachlor is also less detrimental to
sorghum
''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...
, but this is offset by the need for higher application rates to achieve similar weed control.
Xylachlor's safety is not well studied. Prediction software indicates that it may be a class 3 highly toxic compound, mutagen or carcinogen, although other software predictions disagree.
References
Links
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{{Herbicides
Herbicides
Isopropylamino compounds