Herbicides Hereditary diseases

Leptospermone (34), a representative of an important new class of herbicides from the bottlebrush plant, Callistemon citrinus (Curtis) Skeels, has been found to have an inhibitory effect on the enzyme, -hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), involved in the synthesis of plastoquinone in plants. Nitisinone (35), a synthetic derivative of (34), has recently been introduced to the market for the treatment of hereditary tyrosinemia type 1 (HT-1), a severe genetic disease caused by a deficiency of fumaryl acetoacetate hydrolase (FAH). ... 

Nitisinone is an inhibitor of 4-hydroxyphenyIpyruvate dehydrogenase (4-HPPD). Originally studied as a herbicide, it is now marketed to prevent hepatic damage caused by hereditary tyrosinemia type I. This genetic disease is due to the absence in the body of fumarylacetoacetase, which ensures the last step of tyrosine degradation (Figure 8.86). 

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