Natural Metabolites as Biopesticides for Sustainable Agriculture

The heavy reliance on synthetic chemical pesticides has compromised global ecological integrity, resulting in widespread biodiversity loss, soil degradation, chemical residues in food networks, and escalating pest resistance. As the agricultural sector searches for safe and highly regenerative alternatives, nature's own evolutionary design emerges as the premier solution. Natural Metabolites as Biopesticides for Sustainable Agriculture: Mechanism and Action offer a comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of secondary metabolites repurposed as eco-friendly crop-protection tools. Bridging traditional agrarian wisdom with trailblazing molecular science, this edited volume presents the biochemical mechanisms, environmental benefits, and practical deployment of nature-derived agents. What sets this volume apart is its definitive multi-kingdom scope, unifying the protective properties of plant alkaloids and flavonoids, insect-derived molecules, endophytes, and microbial secretions into a structured, mechanistic framework.

Key Features & New inside This Book

· Multi-Kingdom Synthesis: Delivers an in-depth exploration of protective secondary metabolites extracted across diverse kingdoms, highlighting bacterial secretions, entomopathogenic fungal matrices, aquatic algal defense extracts, and plant-derived alkaloids or flavonoids.

· Enzymatic & Cellular Mechanisms: Examines the precise biochemical actions, enzymatic pathways, and cellular disruptions that enable biopesticides to neutralize target pests without harming beneficial organisms.

· Next-Gen Technological Convergence: Features cutting-edge chapters dedicated to nanotechnology-driven targeted delivery systems, alongside artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) architectures for structural biopesticide modeling.

· Advanced Multi-omics Solutions: Introduces new-to-this-edition content on utilizing genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics to accelerate discovery pipelines, scale production, and reinforce global food security.

In summary, this timely and globally contributed text translates complex biochemical interactions into practical, data-driven agronomic solutions. It serves as an indispensable core reference and foundational text for agricultural scientists, molecular biologists, crop-protection researchers, environmental toxicologists, and advanced undergraduate or postgraduate students in sustainable agriculture and biotechnology.