Its chemical structure was determined by X-ray crystallography in 1979 and absolute stereochemistry by total synthesis.

They are all biologically active against many filamentous fungi and yeasts but with insufficient potency and stability to become useful commercial products.

However, their discovery, together with the strobilurins led to agricultural fungicides including azoxystrobin with the same mechanism of action.

Its structure, including the relative configuration of the methoxy and adjacent methyl groups, was established by both spectroscopic methods and single crystal X-ray analysis but its absolute stereochemistry was at that time undetermined.

Intensive research by several agrochemical companies led to the development of useful agricultural fungicides based on the same mode of action, of which azoxystrobin is a typical example.