Adam Harms

Fungicide (500 words)

ALTERNATIVE NAME/S:

DETAILS/DESCRIPTION : The first fungicide was made in 1845 with a mixture of flowers, sulfur, and lime. The mixture was created by a Mr. Tucker, a gardener. Tucker applied the mixture with a sponge; it was painstaking while not being very effective because the rain would easily wash it away. Thirty-seven years later, Pierre Maire Alexis Millardet, who studied under Anton de Bary in France , invented the first fungicide that was both largely effective and easily applicable, the Bordeux Mixture. This was largely discovered by accident. Monsieur Planchon discovered that the vineyards of Rhone were infected with a type of aphid which was later identified to be Phylloxera. Millardet was originally trying to save the vines from Phylloxera caused by aphids. These insects damage the roots and expose them to fungus. Charles Riley, an entomologist for the state of Missouri , noticed that the Phylloxera was native to American vines, and so was more resistant. Riley contacted Millardet who grafted the American roots to the French vines. Unfortunately the American roots exposed the vines to an epidemic of Downey Mildew. Millardet didn't find any cure for the fungus until he spoke with a vineyard manager Mr. Earnest David. David showed Millardet the common practice of spraying poisonous looking chemicals on the vines to deter thieves. Millardet noticed that some of these vines that had been sprayed were remained healthy. He experimented with the different compounds that the farmers would use until he discovered that Copper Sulfate was the most effective.

We can only imagine what the effect on history if fungicide had been more widely available. The most obvious example would be the Irish Potato Famine in which as many as three-quarters million died and a similar number were forced to emigrate all over the world (this Irish Diaspora may consist of as many as 60 million people). Less well known is that during the First World War, a large stock hold of German potatoes were infected with fungus. The Germans could have used the Bordeux Mixture to solve the famine but all the copper was being used for wire. The infected potatoes were a big blow for the Germans; if they had used the fungicide, the chances are high that they would have fought better against the Russians.

Nowadays fungicide is made with hydrazine which is thought to cause cancer. As well as fungicide, hydrazine is used in Spandex clothes, photography chemicals, textile dyes, explosives, anti-depressants, and chemotherapy. It is found naturally only in tobacco.

Even with more potent chemicals, the problem of fungus has not been solved, since nature finds ways to develop resistence: the California wine industry has spent a billion dollars in the last decade or so replanting vineyards infested with Phylloxera.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

The Advance Of The Fungi – E.C. Large 1962

JB's LINKS: Millardet, Anton De Bary, phylloxera, hydrazine

PROPOSED CONNECTIONS INCLUDED ON catlist.doc: Pierre Marie Alexis Millardet,

Anton De Bary (? – only last name on catlist)

PROPOSED CONNECTIONS NOT ON catlist.doc: Charles Riley, lime

AUDIO/VISUAL:

http://www.killerplants.com

ROC 10th Report on Carcinogens http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/roc/tenth/profiles/so96hydr.pdf

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/bot135/lect06.htm