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Long-term application and extensive use of synthetic insecticides have resulted in accumulating their residues in food, milk, water, and soil and cause adverse health effects to human and ecosystems. Therefore, application of natural insecticides in agriculture and public health sectors has been increased as alternative to synthetic insecticides. The question here is, are all natural insecticides safe. Therefore, the review presented here focuses on the safety of natural insecticides. Natural insecticides contain chemical, mineral, and biological materials and some products are available commercially, e.g., pyrethrum, neem, spinosad, rotenone, abamectin, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), garlic, cinnamon, pepper, and essential oil products. It can induce hepatotoxicity, renal toxicity, hematotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, and oxidative stress. It can induce mutagenicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity in mammals. Some natural insecticides and active compounds from essential oils are classified in categories Ib (Highly hazardous) to U (unlikely toxic). Therefore, the selectivity and safety of natural insecticides not absolute and some natural compounds are toxic and induce adverse effects to experimental animals. In concussion, all natural insecticides are not safe and the term “natural” does not mean that compounds are safe. In this respect, the term “natural” is not synonymous with “organic” and not all-natural insecticide products are acceptable in organic farmers.

Green and nanoacaricides including essential oil (EO) nanoemulsions are important compounds to provide new, active, safe acaricides and lead to improvement of avoiding the risk of synthetic acaricides. This study was carried out for the first time on eriophyid mites to develop nanoemulsion of garlic essential oil by ultrasonic emulsification and evaluate its acaricidal activity against the two eriophyid olive mites Aceria oleae Nalepa and Tegolophus hassani (Keifer). Acute toxicity of nanoemulsion was also studied on male rats. Garlic EO was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and the major compounds were diallyl sulfide (8.6%), diallyl disulfide (28.36%), dimethyl tetrasulfide (15.26%), trisulfide,di-2-propenyl (10.41%), and tetrasulfide,di-2-propenyl (9.67%). Garlic oil nanoemulsion with droplet size 93.4 nm was formulated by ultrasonic emulsification for 35 min. Emulsification time and oil and surfactant ratio correlated to the emulsion droplet size and stability. The formulated nanoemulsion showed high acaricidal activity against injurious eriophyid mites with LC 298.225 and 309.634 μg/ml, respectively. No signs of nanoemulsion toxicity were noted in treating rats; thus, it may be considered non-toxic to mammals. Stability of garlic oil nanoemulsion, high acaricidal activity, and the absence of organic toxic solvents make the formulation that may be a possible acaricidal product. Results suggest the possibility of developing suitable natural nanoacaricide from garlic oil.

Information about the adverse effects of lactation transfer of abamectin (ABA) is important for human health, especially in the third-world countries where breastfeeding is the only source of nutrition for infants. So, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the adverse effects of breastfeeding exposure to ABA on oxidative damage and liver and kidney dysfunction in suckling rats. Dams were orally administered ABA at a doses 22.10, 11.05, and 2.21 mg a.i./kg b.wt from postnatal day 1 (PND1) until day 20 (PND20). The signs of toxicity and high mortality were recorded in suckling male (67.5%) and female (55.0%) pups whose mother exposed to the ABA at dose 22.1 mg a.i./kg b.wt. ABA induced significantly decrease in body weights of mothers and their male and female pups and significant increase in relative liver weights. It caused oxidative stress in the liver and kidney of mothers and their pups by increasing the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and decreased activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-transferase (GST). ABA altered the level of serum liver and kidney dysfunction biomarkers either in the mothers or their male and female pups in a dose-dependent manner. It caused histopathological alterations in the liver and kidney tissues. It can be decided that ABA was accumulated in mother's milk, transferred through breast feeding, and induced mortality in their suckling pups. It caused oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, and biochemical and histopathological alterations in the liver and kidney of mothers and their suckling pups. The results in the present study add some information about the adverse effect of lactation transfer of ABA, which is important for human health in the third-world countries where breastfeeding may be the only source of nutrition for infants in the first and most critical weeks of life.

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The adverse effect of cypermethrin on the liver and kidney of weanling female rats and the protective effect of ethanolic extract of grape pomace were investigated in the present study. Weanling female rats were given cypermethrin oral at a dose of 25 mg kg−1 body weight for 28 consecutive days. An additional two Cyp-trated groups received extract at a dose of 100 and 200 mg kg−1 body weight, respectively, throughout the experimental duration. Three groups more served as extract and control groups. Administration of Cyp resulted in a significant increase in serum marker enzymes, for example, aminotransferases (AST and ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and increases the level of urea nitrogen and creatinine. In contrast, Cyp caused significant decrease in levels of total protein and albumin and caused histopathological alterations in liver and kidneys of female rats. Coadministration of the extract to Cyp-treated female rats restored most of these biochemical parameters to within normal levels especially at high dose of extract. However, extract administration to Cyp-treated rats resulted in overall improvement in liver and kidney damage. This study demonstrated the adverse biohistological effects of Cyp on the liver and kidney of weanling female rats. The grape pomace extract administration prevented the toxic effect of Cyp on the above serum parameters. The present study concludes that grape pomace extract has significant antioxidant and hepatorenal protective activity.

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