Nanoemulsion and Its Application in Pesticide Formulation

A nanoemulsion is a colloidal dispersion that contains very small particles with size in the range of 20-200 nm, which may be of the oil-in-water (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O) types depending on whether the oil is dispersed as droplets in water or vice versa. Pesticides play a critical role in controlling agriculture and ensuring food safety. In the future, the utilization of pesticides will become even more important to solve food security problems associated with providing an adequate food supply for the growing world population. Hence, development of new techniques for nanoemulsions formulation in the field of agriculture and forestry are necessary. In this chapter, the synthesis, characterization, and application of nanoemulsion in pesticides formulation are reviewed. In addition, the effect of antifungal or insecticidal and antimicrobial enhancement activity of nanoemulsions with size, composition, and stability are also discussed.

Vital Role of IPFT in Development of New-Generation Pesticide Formulation for Crop Protection: Advancement Overview in Asian Countries

The agricultural sector of Asian countries supports 60% of the global population, accounting one-fifth of the world’s agricultural land. Despite the gap between demand and supply of food is gradually increasing due to the damages caused by insect and other pest attacks on the limited agricultural land, the pest attack has influenced the entire agriculture sector either directly or indirectly, causing socioeconomic losses. To combat, farmers have been using conventional agrochemicals nonjudiciously that lead to adverse effects such as pesticide resistance, environmental contamination, and non-target toxicity. In this regard, new-generation agrochemical formulation techniques are advantageous over conventional pesticides and play a vital role in sustainable agriculture by fulfilling the demand of over-rising food supply to feed the increasing population. These formulations exhibit desired bio-efficacy at lower doses and have minimum possibility to leave pesticide residues in crop products and the environment. Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Gurugram, is one of the leading institutes in Asia, which is actively engaged in developing new-generation formulations to deliver safer, efficient, and environment-friendly pesticide formulations. So far, IPFT has developed 60 pesticide formulations and transferred technologies to different agrochemical industries globally. The new-generation formulations developed by IPFT mainly include microemulsion, nanoemulsion, capsulated suspension, nano-encapsulation, an emulsion in water, mixed formulations including several botanical pesticide formulations. The new advancement in pesticide delivery systems is very supportive in combating the crisis faced by the agricultural sector. In this chapter, formulation of different new-generation pesticides and their advancement are summarized.

Preparation and Size Control of Efficient and Safe Nanopesticides by Anodic Aluminum Oxide Templates-Assisted Method

Efficient and safe nanopesticides play an important role in pest control due to enhancing target efficiency and reducing undesirable side effects, which has become a hot spot in pesticide formulation research. However, the preparation methods of nanopesticides are facing critical challenges including low productivity, uneven particle size and batch differences. Here, we successfully developed a novel, versatile and tunable strategy for preparing buprofezin nanoparticles with tunable size via anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template-assisted method, which exhibited better reproducibility and homogeneity comparing with the traditional method. The storage stability of nanoparticles at different temperatures was evaluated, and the release properties were also determined to evaluate the performance of nanoparticles. Moreover, the present method is further demonstrated to be easily applicable for insoluble drugs and be extended for the study of the physicochemical properties of drug particles with different sizes.

Identifikasi Karakteristik Pengecilan Ukuran dengan Metode Sonikasi dari Formula Insektisida yang Ditambahkan Surfaktan Berbasis Sawit

Size reduction of pesticide formulation can improve its performance to pest and disease control in plant. Size reduction methods were high speed agitation, ultrasonic emulsification, high pressure homogenization, microfluidic and membrane emulsification. Homogenizer and sonication methods were most widely used because its high effectivity in size reduction. The purpose of this research was to identify the effect of size reduction on physico chemical properties of the insecticide formulation by adding palm oil surfactant. The method of this research was to make an emulsifiable concentrate (EC) formulation using 15% active ingredient of emamectin benzoate, xylene, cationic surfactant of 1%, nonionic surfactants of 6% with DEA and APG surfactant ratio of 2:3. This formulation was mixed using Homogenizer at a speed of 4000 rpm and sonication with frequencies of 42 kHz at various times of 15, 30 and 45 minutes. The best result of this research was using sonication method for 45 minutes. The best physico-chemical properties were emulsion stability after 2 hours, cream formation after 24 hours emulsion, particle size of 0.70 μm with homogenous dispersion, surface tension of 25.54 dyne/cm, contact angle at 0 minutes of 25.05⁰ and contact angle after 15 minutes of 0⁰.

A simple derivatization RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of zineb and hexaconazole in pesticide formulation using a PDA detector

A simple derivatization reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous analysis (separation and quantification) of zineb and hexaconazole has been optimized and validated.

Rapid resolution liquid chromatography method for determination of malathion in pesticide formulation

This paper presents a new, simple, precise, and accurate rapid resolution liquid chromatography (RRLC) method for determination of an active ingredient malathion in the pesticide formulation. The analysis was performed on a Poroshell EC 120-C18 (50 mm × 3 mm, 2.7 μm) analytical column using isocratic elution with a mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile–water (50:50, v/v), a flow rate of 1 mL/min, a constant column temperature at 25 °C, and ultraviolet-diode array detection (UV-DAD) at 220 nm. The specificity, selectivity, linearity, precision, and accuracy were tested for the method validation according to the Collaborative International Pesticides Analytical Council (CIPAC) and Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection (SANCO) guidelines and all tested parameters were found within acceptance criteria. The obtained results indicated that the proposed method can be used for routine analysis of the active ingredient malathion in the pesticide formulation “Etiol tecni” following the CIPAC and SANCO rules. The run time of analysis under the stipulated chromatographic conditions was about 2.5 min, meaning that the proposed method requires a small volume (< 1.5 mL) of the organic solvent (acetonitrile) making it cost-effective.