In order to find novel leading compounds used to control aphids, eight E-β-farnesene (EBF) analogues were synthesized from the skeletal structure of EBF, the main component of aphid alarm phero-mones, where the conjugate double bond was superseded by nitrogen heterocyclic compounds such as N-nitroimidazolidin-2-imine, thiazolidine-2-thione, oxazolidin-2-one, etc. The structures of all the target compounds were confirmed by ¹H NMR, IR spectra and elemental analysis, and the different reaction and biological activities of these compounds were also discussed. The results of biological tests indicated that most compounds showed insecticidal activity against Lipaphis erysimi, especially the inhibition rate of 4e was higher than that of thiacloprid at testing five concentrations. The interesting phenomenon is that at a lower concentration (e.g. 62.5 µg/mL), the inhibition rate of most compounds is better than that of thiacloprid despite that they are worse than thiacloprid at 1000 µg/mL.

Key words: EBF analogue, azaheterocycle, synthesis, biological activity