Azoles compounds from other classes

Since their discovery in the late 1960s several compounds from the chemical class of 1-substituted imidazoles and 1,2,4-triazoles have been developed and successfully used for the control of plant diseases and for the treatment of human fungal infections. The first commercial triazole compound was triadimefon ( 1J, introduced by Bayer in 1973 for the control of powdery mildew, rusts, and seed-borne diseases of cereals. Since that time many other so called "azole-fungicides" have been introduced into crop protection (2) and others are still being developed. 

Heterocyclic compounds are ubiquitous in biology, medicine, and biochemistry, and the azoles form an important class of nitrogen heterocyclic compounds with five-membered aromatic rings that can contain one to five nitrogen atoms (other heteroatoms can also be present). Many drugs and pharmaceuticals are derived from azole structures. The structures of representative azoles are shown in Figure 6.1. Note that some of these compounds exist in tautomeric equilibrium in solution. 

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