Print This PageHistory of Roundup® Brand Herbicide
Roundup® Brand Herbicide: An Invention that Changed a Company and an Industry
The events leading to the invention of Roundup® brand herbicide began in the early 1950s, when Monsanto formed a small research group to focus on discovery and development of proprietary pesticides.
Why did Monsanto decide to get into agriculture at that particular time?
One reason was that a couple of scientists in the company’s laboratory in Dayton had already begun to screen compounds for their effect on plants and had achieved some success. Another reason was that the agriculture industry was just beginning to shift from inorganic commodity materials like sulfur, lead and arsenic, to safer and more active organic materials. With organic materials, there was a role for basic science -- and patentable products. Probably the most important reason, however, was that Monsanto President Edgar Queeny owned a 600-acre farm in St. Louis County and he understood agriculture.
Starting in 1951, Monsanto began assembling a cadre of scientists trained in plant biology, entomology, biochemistry, and plant pathology to set up a program to screen compounds for pesticide activity. Although there were a few chemists dedicated to making molecules for the ag effort, most of the compounds evaluated for potential pesticide use came from chemists working in divisions of Monsanto with no connection to agriculture. The chemists simply sent samples to the new group for screening.
By the late 1950s, Monsanto was already selling several successful pre-emergent herbicides. In addition, the company sold animal feed additives and had a profitable commodity fertilizer business. By 1959, combined sales to agriculture topped $50 million – 12 percent of company sales. Monsanto leaders made the decision to pull all of its various agricultural products into one business unit, and in 1960, created the Agricultural Division. With division status, the ag research effort grew and the division flourished.
In 1967, a key event in the history of Monsanto and agriculture occurred. A young chemist named John Franz transferred to the Ag division, where he met Dr. Phil Hamm. Hamm ran Monsanto’s herbicide screening program, and he was on the hunt for a herbicide to control perennial weeds.
It was Dr. Hamm who had established the practice of screening compounds submitted from other divisions back in the early 1950s, and that protocol continued. In 1969, Hamm was excited about a couple of phosphonate compounds that had been submitted by chemists from the Inorganic Division. The compounds had been created as potential water softeners, but Hamm was convinced that they had herbicide potential for perennial weeds.
He asked Franz to take a shot at making analogs and derivatives of the compounds in the hope of finding better activity. Franz agreed. “But that didn’t yield anything, and I was ready to drop the project,” said Franz. “Then I began trying to figure out the peculiarities of those two compounds and I wondered if they might metabolize differently in the plants than the others…to something common. I began to write out metabolites…you could write a list of about seven or eight…to try to make. It involved completely new chemistry. Glyphosate was the third one I made.”
Franz was not the first chemist to synthesize the glyphosate molecule. A subsequent literature review of glyphosate turned up two other references prior to Franz’ discovery. But no one had ever screened the molecule as a herbicide!
Franz synthesized glyphosate in May of 1970, and the primary screen results were so spectacular that the usual secondary screens were bypassed and the miracle molecule was sent straight to field testing to beat the end of the growing season. Researcher Dr. Doug Baird knew Monsanto had a winner when he saw the first field tests. “There were some quackgrass plots on a hill in eastern Pennsylvania and I could see from two miles away it was a success. The hill looked like a checkerboard,” recalled Baird. It was Baird who wrote the one-word report on the compound: “Eureka.”
Process chemists worked around the clock to get enough pounds of glyphosate for testing. Academic cooperators and growers who assisted with field tests had one question: Where can I buy this stuff?
In 1974, John Franz’ miracle molecule entered the market as the active ingredient in Roundup® brand herbicide. His discovery and the efforts of those who brought Roundup® to market are in large measure responsible for Monsanto’s position as a leader in agriculture today.
