diff --git a/include/openbabel/plugin.h b/include/openbabel/plugin.h
index 3714227981..857cd9d409 100644
--- a/include/openbabel/plugin.h
+++ b/include/openbabel/plugin.h
@@ -124,6 +124,9 @@ class OBERROR OBPlugin
   ///Returns the map of the subtypes
   virtual PluginMapType& GetMap() const =0;
 
+  ///Load all plugins (formats, fingerprints, forcefields etc.)
+  static void LoadAllPlugins();
+
 protected:
   ///\brief Returns a reference to the map of the plugin types.
   /// Is a function rather than a static member variable to avoid initialization problems.
@@ -136,9 +139,6 @@ class OBERROR OBPlugin
   ///Keep a record if all plugins have been loaded
   static int AllPluginsLoaded;
 
-  ///Load all plugins (formats, fingerprints, forcefields etc.)
-  static void LoadAllPlugins();
-
   ///Returns the map of a particular plugin type, e.g. GetMapType("fingerprints")
   static PluginMapType& GetTypeMap(const char* PluginID);
 
diff --git a/src/formats/fastsearchformat.cpp b/src/formats/fastsearchformat.cpp
index 7fb7b9cf90..0b305a6f95 100644
--- a/src/formats/fastsearchformat.cpp
+++ b/src/formats/fastsearchformat.cpp
@@ -541,6 +541,13 @@ virtual const char* Description() //required
       vector<string> vec;
       tokenize(vec, p);
 
+      if(vec.size() == 0)
+      {
+    	  obErrorLog.ThrowError(__FUNCTION__,
+    			  "Missing argument for -s/-S", obError);
+          return false;
+      }
+
       //ignore leading ~ (not relevant to fastsearch)
       if(vec[0][0]=='~')
         vec[0].erase(0,1);
diff --git a/tools/babel.cpp b/tools/babel.cpp
index 049c24d51e..4e2cb698d5 100644
--- a/tools/babel.cpp
+++ b/tools/babel.cpp
@@ -73,6 +73,9 @@ int main(int argc,char *argv[])
   char *oext = NULL;
   char *iext = NULL;
 
+  //load plugs to fully initialize option parameters
+  OBPlugin::LoadAllPlugins();
+
   //Save name of program without its path (and .exe)
   string pn(argv[0]);
   string::size_type pos;