Compendium of Pesticide Common Names

Introduction

Function of the Compendium

This electronic compendium is intended to provide details of the status of all pesticide common names (not just those assigned by ISO), together with their systematic chemical names, molecular formulae, chemical structures and CAS Registry Numbers®. It is designed to function like a database, with several indexes that provide access to the data sheets.

This free access service, originally compiled by Alan Wood, has established itself as the Go-To reference for many in the scientific community. In 2021 the Compendium was handed to the British Crop Production Council (BCPC) to maintain. The service is the perfect complement to BCPC’s Online Pesticide Manual where a wealth of further data are available such as physical, toxicological and ecotoxicological properties, uses, commercial products containing the pesticide, manufacturers, etc.

If you are not familiar with pesticides and their chemistry, then you may find it helpful to read the basic introduction and to look up terms in the glossary.

Pesticide Common Names

The Technical Committee 81 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has devised a system for naming pesticides, with the aim of ensuring that common names indicate similarities between related compounds, do not conflict with any other names, and are suitable for use in many languages. New common names for pest control chemicals are provisionally approved by the Committee, and are then used in the literature and on product labels. These names are equivalent to the generic names of pharmaceuticals.

The Compendium is updated when new ISO common names are provisionally approved. Likewise, the BCPC companion database, the Online Pesticide Manual, is similarly updated whenever a new common name is assigned as well as when new data on any pesticide becomes available. The corresponding Pesticide Manual, is published in hard copy form every 3 years

This compendium does not include trade names or code numbers; many such names and codes for both current as well as obsolete products can be found in the Online Pesticide Manual,

The Compendium includes:

1) Data Sheets

Substances for which common names have been (a) approved and published by ISO, (b) approved but not published or (c) provisionally approved.
- Names that are marked as “published” have completed the approval process and have been published in an ISO Standard, addendum or amendment.
- Names that are marked as “approved” have also completed the approval process but have not yet been published in an ISO Standard, addendum or amendment.
- Names that are marked as “provisionally approved” are waiting to be balloted for final approval prior to publication by ISO. It is extremely unusual for a name to be rejected after it has been provisionally approved, and so these names are widely used on product labels and in the literature.
Substances for which a common name has been approved by organizations other than ISO (e.g WHO INN, ANSI, etc.), and for which there is no corresponding ISO common name.
Substances included in ISO 765:2016 Pesticides considered not to require common names.
Substances that are known by trivial names or short chemical names, and for which there is no ISO common name.
Ester and salt derivatives of substances that have common names, but where the biological activity lies in the parent compound.

Each data sheet includes the status of the common name, its IUPAC and CAS systematic names, its CAS Registry Number®, its molecular formula, its activity (using terms from the Pesticide Classification lists), notes on alternative names and simple esters and salts of the pesticide, its chemical structure, InChI and InChIKey (generated from commercial chemical structure drawing programs).

CAS Registry Number® is a Registered Trademark of the American Chemical Society.

2) Indexes

All common names, including common names used in countries where particular ISO names are not acceptable and some trivial names, plus names of substances that are considered by ISO not to require common names.
Chinese common names
French common names
Russian common names
Non-ISO common names, restricted to substances that do not have ISO common names and listed under the organizations that assign names, plus substances considered by ISO not to require common names.
Ester and salt derivatives
New common names
IUPAC preferred systematic names (PIN)
IUPAC general systematic names
Chemical Abstracts systematic names
Chemical Abstracts Registry Numbers
Molecular formulae
InChIKeys
HAIC index; an index of the type and number of heteroatoms in each pesticide

The indexes of IUPAC systematic names, Chemical Abstracts systematic names, Registry Numbers, and molecular formulae contain entries for over 350 simple esters and salts, in addition to the entries for their parent compounds.

3) Pesticide Classification

Lists of pesticides by class, in which each major group of pesticides (e.g. herbicides) is subdivided into chemical classes (e.g. chloroacetamide herbicides). As an aid to navigating the longer lists, there are summaries containing just the chemical classes and not the individual substances. There is also a list of the chemical classes.

International standards

ISO 257:2018 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Principles for the selection of common names
ISO 765:2016 Pesticides considered not to require common names
ISO 1750:1981 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names
ISO 1750:1981/ADD 1:1983 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Addendum 1
ISO 1750:1981/ADD 2:1983 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Addendum 2
ISO 1750:1981/AMD 1:1982 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Amendment 1
ISO 1750:1981/AMD 2:1999 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Amendment 2
ISO 1750:1981/AMD 3:2001 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Amendment 3
ISO 1750:1981/AMD 4:2008 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Amendment 4
ISO 1750:1981/AMD 5:2008 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Amendment 5
ISO 1750:1981/Amd. 6:2018 Pesticides and other agrochemicals – Common names, Amendment 6

Please send any comments on this Compendium to BCPC by using the Comments and Questions form.