The use of agrochemical and pharmaceutical active ingredients is essential in our modern society. Given the increased concern and awareness of the potential risks of some chemicals, there is a growing need to align with 'green chemistry' and 'safe and sustainable by design' principles and thus to evaluate the hazards of agrochemical and pharmaceutical active ingredients in early stages of R&D. We give an overview of the current challenges and opportunities to assess the principle of biodegradability in the environment. Development of new medium/high-throughput methodologies, combining predictive tools and wet-lab experimentation are essential to design biodegradable chemicals early in the active ingredient discovery and selection process.
Keywords: Active pharmaceutical ingredients; Biodegradability; Green chemistry; Plant protection products; Transformation products.
Copyright 2023 Claudia Coll, Katrin Fenner, Claudio Screpanti. License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.