Why is Sulfur a Fungicide?

**Facial** · 05-03-12, 07:53 PM

I am having difficulty finding scientific explanations for why sulfur is used as a fungicide, to great efficacy. Does anyone have knowledge or leads on this?

**arauca** · 05-06-12, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by Facial

I am having difficulty finding scientific explanations for why sulfur is used as a fungicide, to great efficacy. Does anyone have knowledge or leads on this?

Camarade, perhaps sulfur react with oxygen forms SO2 and SO2 in presence react with water and form a strong acid, which is toxic

**Fraggle Rocker** · 05-09-12, 07:50 AM

Interesting question but baffling. Even Wikipedia doesn't give the answer.

Sulfur seems to be a very wide-range poison. In addition to fungus, it is also used to kill bacteria and even insects.

**Facial** · 05-21-12, 09:06 PM

The acid explanation is quite intriguing, but the formation of oxides of sulfur seems limited if one starts from an elemental form - the activation energy would need to be somewhat high given the electronegativities.

Fraggle I have never seen you stumped on a question before!

**Epictetus** · 05-21-12, 09:28 PM

I know of a Chinese 'herbal' ointment that is basically sulfur and nothing else. It works like nothing else on foot fungus -even better than Australian tea tree oil.
It seems redundant to me to ask how or why it kills fungus. Because it's a nasty, toxic chemical that's why! This thread reminds me of the one about why getting shot with a bullet hurts, but we were specifically instructed there not to answer sarcastically. So sorry, I'm taking it out here!