Piperazine: Its role in the discovery of pesticides

Derivatives of piperazine, which is one of the most important heterocycles, are often used as linkers to connect active substructures that show promising bioactivities, especially in the field of agrochemicals. From 2000 to 2022, many piperazine-containing compounds were found to exhibit excellent activities against fungi, bacteria, insects, plant viruses, and weeds and have also been used as plant growth regulators. Currently, the development of novel pesticides to prevent the invasion of crop pathogens and ensure the quality and yields of crops is still needed. We herein investigated and summarized the role that piperazine plays in the discovery of pesticides to provide a comprehensive summary of the broad activities of piperazine derivatives in agricultural applications and offer a potential reference for novel pesticide design using piperazine-containing compounds. Moreover, structure–activity relationships (SARs) analyses of bioactive piperazine-containing compounds are also discussed for a deeper understanding.