In the search for more efficacious herbicides, knowledge concerning the biochemical mode of action is desirable for a number of reasons. Investigations at the level of the metabolite have been demonstrated to represent effective diagnostic approaches. The metabolic profile of plants treated with herbicides with known MoAs show in most cases the greatest changes around the target site, which can thus be identified. Therefore Metabolic Profiling can be used for different approaches.

•     Different herbicides can be grouped according to their MoA. New compounds with known MoAs can therefore easily be allocated using Metabolic FINGERPRINTING. It can complement or even replace ordinary tests.

•     Previously used tests mainly address known MoAs. Metabolite PROFILING has the potential to reveal the target site of new compounds by following the most dramatically changed metabolites.

Identification of metabolite QTL in a set of tomato natural variation in the form of introgression lines (IL). GC-MS based metabolite profiling allowed the identification of metabolites important in flavour and nutrition (Schauer et al., 2006, NBT).

Mode-of-action

In pharmacology it is necessary to monitor and determine the mode-of-action of bioactive compounds.The biochemical mechanism of novel compounds with unknown actions can be elucidated using metabolite profiling. 

Toxicology

Most crucial is the identification of toxic effects of bioactive compounds and byproducts. Metabolomic technologies allows to comprehensively monitor the effects and by-products of the compound.