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Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides worldwide and are typically deployed as seed treatments (hereafter NST) in many grain and oilseed crops, including soybeans. However, there is a surprising dearth of information regarding NST effectiveness in increasing soybean seed yield, and most published data suggest weak, or inconsistent yield benefit. The US is the key soybean-producing nation worldwide and this work includes soybean yield data from 194 randomized and replicated field studies conducted specifically to evaluate the effect of NSTs on soybean seed yield at sites within 14 states from 2006 through 2017. Here we show that across the principal soybean-growing region of the country, there are negligible and management-specific yield benefits attributed to NSTs. Across the entire region, the maximum observed yield benefits due to fungicide (FST = fungicide seed treatment) + neonicotinoid use (FST + NST) reached 0.13 Mg/ha. Across the entire region, combinations of management practices affected the effectiveness of FST + NST to increase yield but benefits were minimal ranging between 0.01 to 0.22 Mg/ha. Despite widespread use, this practice appears to have little benefit for most of soybean producers; across the entire region, a partial economic analysis further showed inconsistent evidence of a break-even cost of FST or FST + NST. These results demonstrate that the current widespread prophylactic use of NST in the key soybean-producing areas of the US should be re-evaluated by producers and regulators alike.

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The preservation of tropical rainforests is an important goal both for the intrinsic value of their cultural and biological diversity as well as for the well-being of the peoples who make these forests their home. In addition, tropical forests are potential sources of new pharmaceutical products that can only be found by chemical prospecting in Nature's genetically encoded combinatorial library. As part of an effort to integrate biodiversity conservation and drug discovery with economic development, we have initiated a collaborative program to discover potential pharmaceuticals in the rainforest of Suriname. The plant Renealmia alpinia (Zingiberaceae) was selected for investigation based on its ethnomedical use as a febrifuge, but testing in the yeast Sc-7 assay gave a positive response, indicative of cytotoxic activity. Using this bioassay, the two new labdane diterpense, 11-hydroxy-8(17),12(E)-labdadien-15,-16-dial 11,15-hemiacetal (1) and 16-oxo-8(17),12(E)-labdadien-15-oic acid (2), and the known diterpene, 8(17),12(E)-labdadien-15,16-dial (3), have been isolated. Their structures were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR techniques (DEPT, COSY, HETCOR, HMBC, and NOESY) and IR, UV, and MS spectra, and the absolute stereochemistry of 1 was established by CD spectroscopy and by the formation and NMR analysis of alpha-methoxyphenylacetyl esters. The hemiacetal 1 was cytotoxic to M109 cells, with an IC50 value of 2.6 micrograms/mL.