scholarly journals Risk and Toxicity Assessment of a Potential Natural Insecticide, Methyl Benzoate, in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 382
Author(s):  
Yu-Cheng Zhu ◽  
Yanhua Wang ◽  
Maribel Portilla ◽  
Katherine Parys ◽  
Wenhong Li

Methyl benzoate (MB) is a component of bee semiochemicals. Recent discovery of insecticidal activity of MB against insect pests provides a potential alternative to chemical insecticides. The aim of this study was to examine any potential adverse impact of MB on honey bees. By using two different methods, a spray for contact and feeding for oral toxicity, LC50s were 236.61 and 824.99 g a.i./L, respectively. The spray toxicity was 2002-fold and 173,163-fold lower than that of imidacloprid and abamectin. Piperonyl butoxide (PBO, inhibiting P450 oxidases [P450]) significantly synergized MB toxicity in honey bees, indicating P450s are the major MB-detoxification enzymes for bees. Assessing additive/synergistic interactions indicated that MB synergistically or additively aggravated the toxicity of all four insecticides (representing four different classes) in honey bees. Another adverse effect of MB in honey bees was the significant decrease of orientation and flight ability by approximately 53%. Other influences of MB included minor decrease of sucrose consumption, minor increase of P450 enzymatic activity, and little to no effect on esterase and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. By providing data from multiple experiments, we have substantially better understanding how important the P450s are in detoxifying MB in honey bees. MB could adversely affect feeding and flight in honey bees, and may interact with many conventional insecticides to aggravate toxicity to bees. However, MB is a relatively safe chemical to bees. Proper formulation and optimizing proportion of MB in mixtures may be achievable to enhance efficacy against pests and minimize adverse impact of MB on honey bees.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-216
Author(s):  
Lalit Sharma ◽  
Aditi Sharma ◽  
Girdhari L. Gupta ◽  
Gopal Singh Bisht

Background: A standardized polyherbal preparation (POL-6) containing six plant extracts Hypericum perforatum, Bacopa monnieri, Centella asiatica, Withania somnifera, Ocimum sanctum and Camellia sinesis have good antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. The present study was carried out to evaluate the safety profile of POL-6 through acute and subacute oral toxicity models in Wistar rats. Methods: In acute safety evaluation, a single dose of 2000mg/kg of POL-6 was given orally to five rats and was observed for 14 days. In subacute safety evaluation POL-6 at the doses of 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg was given orally to the rats once a day for 28 days. The animals were observed for the signs of toxicity and mortality during the study period. Results: In acute toxicity evaluation, POL-6 treatment did not show any toxic signs and mortality in animals during the observation period. In subacute toxicity studies, no changes were seen in any of the dose levels of POL-6 treatment during the total body weights, organ weights and hematobiochemical parameters examination of the rats. No lesions were seen during the gross/histopathological examination. Conclusion: The study revealed that administration of POL-6 for 28 days showed no significant treatment generated toxic effects in the animals, hence it can be considered as non-toxic if it is ingested in a time not greater than a month.


Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Md Munir Mostafiz ◽  
Errol Hassan ◽  
Rajendra Acharya ◽  
Jae-Kyoung Shim ◽  
Kyeong-Yeoll Lee

The Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is an insect pest that commonly affects stored and postharvest agricultural products. For the control of insect pests and mites, methyl benzoate (MBe) is lethal as a fumigant and also causes contact toxicity; although it has already been established as a food-safe natural product, the fumigation toxicity of MBe has yet to be demonstrated in P. interpunctella. Herein, we evaluated MBe as a potential fumigant for controlling adults of P. interpunctella in two bioassays. Compared to the monoterpenes examined under laboratory conditions, MBe demonstrated high fumigant activity using a 1-L glass bottle at 1 μL/L air within 4 h of exposure. The median lethal concentration (LC50) of MBe was 0.1 μL/L air; the median lethal time (LT50) of MBe at 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 1 μL/L air was 3.8, 3.3, 2.8, and 2.0 h, respectively. Compared with commercially available monoterpene compounds used in pest control, MBe showed the highest fumigant toxicity (toxicity order as follows): MBe > citronellal > linalool > 1,8 cineole > limonene. Moreover, in a larger space assay, MBe caused 100% mortality of P. interpunctella at 0.01 μL/cm3 of air after 24 h of exposure. Therefore, MBe can be recommended for use in food security programs as an ecofriendly alternative fumigant. Specifically, it provides another management tool for curtailing the loss of stored food commodities due to P. interpunctella infestation.


Author(s):  
Meenakshi Sundaram Malayappan ◽  
Gayathri Natarajan ◽  
Logamanian Mockaiyathevar ◽  
Meenakumari Ramasamy

Abstract Objectives Madhulai Manappagu – a well-known sastric and widely prescribed Siddha herbal syrup formulation indicated for treating Veluppu Noi (Anaemia especially Iron deficiency Anaemia) has been in day today practice in Tamil Nadu for a quite longer decades. The syrup is a herbal preparation which has a sweet pleasant odour and a palatable taste, contain the juice of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) as the main ingredient. Though the formulation is a fruit juice, the safety profile of the syrup is not established and is being marketed without toxicological evaluation. The study is aimed at ascertaining the acute and sub-acute toxicity assessment of Madhulai Manappagu in Wistar Albino rats. Methods The acute and sub-acute (28day repeated oral) toxicity studies were performed as per the guidelines mentioned in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 423 (adopted on December 2001) and TG 407 (adopted on October 2008) with slight modifications respectively. For acute toxicity study, three female rats were randomly selected as control; three female rats were randomly selected and were administered a single dose of 5,000 mg/kg body weight per oral route. For sub-acute (28day repeated oral) toxicity studies, three doses of test drug MM of 500 mg/kg/day (low dose), 750 mg/kg/day (intermittent dose) and 1,000 mg/kg/day (high dose) were selected for administration. Both sexes of Wistar Albino rats were randomized into four groups of 10 animals each (five males, five females). Group I was kept as control group. Group II, III and IV served as low, intermittent and high doses of MM respectively. Animals were observed for mortality, morbidity, body weight changes, feed and water intake. Haematology, clinical biochemistry, electrolytes, gross pathology, relative organ weight and histopathological examination were performed. Results In the acute toxicity study, rats showed no toxicological signs on behavior, gross pathology and body weight of rats when treated with a single dose of 5,000 mg/kg body weight per oral route. In the subacute (28 days repeated oral) toxicity study, rats have showed no significant changes on behavior, gross pathology, body weight, and hematological and biochemical parameters when treated with Madhulai Manappagu in three different doses. Conclusions The toxicity studies which include both acute and 28 days repeated (subacute) oral toxicity studies, revealed no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of Madhulai Manappagu in animals. Thus the safety of the drug in human usage was ensured.


2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Vivenza ◽  
Mauro Feola ◽  
Ornella Garrone ◽  
Martino Monteverde ◽  
Marco Merlano ◽  
...  

Background Anthracyclines are among the most active drugs against breast cancer, but can exert cardiotoxic effects eventually resulting in congestive heart failure (CHF). Identifying breast cancer patients at high risk of developing cardiotoxicity after anthracycline therapy would be of value in guiding the use of these agents. Aims We determined whether polymorphisms in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and in the glutathione S-transferase (GST) family of phase II detoxification enzymes might be useful predictors of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) kinetics and risk of developing CHF. We sought correlations between the development of cardiotoxicity and gene polymorphisms in 48 patients with early breast cancer treated with adjuvant anthracycline chemotherapy. Methods We analyzed the following polymorphisms: p.Met235Thr and p.Thr174Met in angiotensinogen ( AGT), Ins/Del in angiotensin-converting enzyme ( ACE), A1166C in angiotensin II type-1 receptor ( AGTR1A), c.-344T>C in aldosterone synthase ( CYP11B2), p.Ile105Val in GSTP1. Additionally, we analyzed the presence or absence of the GSTT1 and GSTP1 genes. A LVEF <50% was detected at least once during the 3 years of follow-up period in 13 out of 48 patients (27.1%). Conclusion RAAS gene polymorphisms were not significantly associated with the development of cardiotoxicity. GSTM1 may be useful as a biomarker of higher risk of cardiotoxicity, as demonstrated in our cohort of patients (p=0.147).


Author(s):  
Xiaolian Zhang ◽  
Xiuguo Wang ◽  
Yalei Liu ◽  
Kuan Fang ◽  
Tong Liu

Sulfoxaflor is a new kind of neonicotinoid insecticide that is used to control sap-feeding insect pests. In this study, a hazard assessment of sulfoxaflor on soil invertebrate earthworms was performed under effective concentrations. The results showed that different exposure times and doses had significant influence on the toxicity of sulfoxaflor. Sulfoxaflor degraded quickly in artificial soil with a degradation rate of 0.002–0.017 mg/(kg·d) and a half-life of 12.0–15.4 d. At 0.5 mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg, the ·OH− content, antioxidant enzyme activeities, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) content and 8-OHdG content had significant differences compared to those in the control group. On the 56th day, significant differences were only observed in the Glutathione S-transferase enzyme (GST) activity and 8-OHdG content at 1.0 mg/kg compared to those in the control group due to the degradation of sulfoxaflor. This indicated that the risk of sulfoxaflor to earthworms was reduced because it was easily degraded in soil. However, because sulfoxaflor is a super toxic pollutant to earthworms, high concentrations of sulfoxaflor should not be released into the soil environment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sule Karaman ◽  
John Barnett Jr. ◽  
Greg P. Sykes ◽  
Bryan Delaney

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