History and objectives

The laboratory of pesticide synthesis and plant protection was established in 1962 by V. Dovlatyan, worldwide well-known scientist, NAS academician. Thanks to him, a new direction of synthetic organic chemistry – the elaboration of new chemical means of plant protection was conducted in Armenia. A number of pesticides, i.e. phenagone, crotiline, metazin, sulphazine, trisurone, suram and antigone were applied in farming. The syntheses were carried out in different directions. 3 doctoral thesis and 34 candidate dissertations have been defended under the supervision of  V.V.Dovlatyan.

Since 2006 the laboratory has been headed by professor A.P. Yengoyan. Besides developing traditional directions of the laboratory, he has started the synthesizing of the new sulfuronium, oxyalkil and oxyaralkil derivatives of heterocycles containing N, S, O that have potential pesticide activity meeting the contemporary environmental demands.

1. Synthesis of non-conformed and condensed new systems with the combination of two, three, and four heterocyclic rings, detecting compounds with two pesticidal properties in them.

2. Target synthesis based on the principles of “green chemistry” that envisages the development of high-frequency reactions in solid-phase or water solubility, reduction of energy carriers and waste, rapid destruction of synthesized materials (pesticides) in the environment, etc..

In these directions, the laboratory has already achieved success, with more than a dozen preparations with fungicidal and high-performance actives, some of which are undergoing field tests, in these new systems. In result of researches, conducted in 2010-2017, 113 scientific reports were published in the different international journals.

The center prepares researchers, where over the last six years six dissertations were defended, written on the base of researches conducted at the laboratory. Now, scientific works in the center are carried out by candidates of sciences E. Hambardzumyan, T. Gomktsyan and V. Pivazyan, senior researchers and candidates of sciences E. Ghazaryan, A. Voskanyan, A. Karapetyan and R. Shainova, researchers S. Harutyunyan and M. Dovlatyan.

The laboratory collaborates with a range of republican and international scientific canters.

Scientific technological center of organic and pharmaceutical chemistry, NAS, Division of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, NAS, Institute of Chemical Physics, NAS, Yerevan State University, Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, General Institute, General institute of chemical physics of national academy (Russian Federation), Institute of organic chemistry of academy of sciences (RF), Institute of molecular medicine of California (USA), Center for management of chemical substances (Poland), Masaryk University of Czech Republic.

International grants.

• ES “COPERNICUS-2” “Pesticides” (Contract No.ICA 2-2000-10002)
• International Science and Technology Center, (Project A-370)
• UNIDO “Cleaner Production”
• UNIDO “Environmentally Sustainable Management of PCBs and Other POPs Waste, Technical Assistance for POPs in the Republic of Armenia”
• “Armenian and UNEP Partnership Initiative for Sound Managment of Chemical and Implementation of SAICM in Armenia”
• NATO “Science for peace”: “Inventory, Monitoring and Analysis of Obsolete Pesticides in Armenia for Environment Sound Disposal”
• “Management of Chemical Substunces in the Republic of Armenia ” EU (Poland)
• UNIDO “Minamata Convention Mercury Inventory in the Republic of Armenia”
• “Minamata Convention on Mercury․ Inventory of Mercury Emissions to the Environment in the Republic of Armenia” (UNIDO)
• “Implementation of BAT and BEP for Reduction of UP-POPs Releases from Open Burning Sources” (UNIDO)

Head of the laboratory A. Engoyan is an invited editor of eight scientific journals. Upon the decision taken by the Board of Trustees, on November 6th, 2018 the laboratory was renamed into Research center for pesticides and plant protection.