Recent Developments and Challenges for Nanoscale Formulation of Botanical Pesticides for Use in Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

In recent years, the use of substances of natural origin, such as botanical pesticides, has emerged as a preferred alternative to the use of synthetic pesticides, the excessive use of which has raised a lot of concern over safety to human/animal health and the environment. Recent developments in nanotechnology have opened up a new avenue for the development of more efficient formulations that can overcome many of the obstacles generally faced in their use in the field, such as loss of activity because of degradation, instability, volatilization, and so on. This Review discusses the key developments in this area, as well as the challenges in relation to nanoscale formulation of botanical pesticides. It presents an appraisal of the recent scientific research, along with an account of the products that have already reached the market. While it acknowledges the great potential of nanotechnology-derived formulations of botanical pesticides for increasing agricultural productivity and reducing health and the environmental impacts, it also highlights the technological challenges that must be addressed to enable adoption of the technology for wider use in agri-food production.

Plant Natural Products for the Control of Aedes aegypti: The Main Vector of Important Arboviruses

“…From 1998 until early 2011, the number of patents of essential oil-containing mosquito repellent inventions has almost doubled every 4 years [149], but the number of new products does not reflect this. There are several possible reasons for this disparity, such as: (i) the onerous regulatory processes involved in the registration of a pesticide product; (ii) the quantity of raw material biomass required to obtain sufficient extract and/or its isolated active compound, and (iii) most of the research is conducted at the laboratory scale often without field evaluation to confirm the product application [13,47,150].…”

“…The low availability of raw materials due to limited yields and cultivation usually makes botanical insecticides more expensive than chemicals. The study of bioactive compound synthesis through biotechnology, such as tissue culture in bioreactors, constitutes an alternative to this limitation [150,151]. In moving from laboratory to industrial scale, a number of different factors must be considered: botanical material, analysis technique, formulations, toxicological tests, mechanisms of action, among others.…”

“…Among the techniques used, nanotechnology, encapsulation and use of hydrophobic matrices with an extended and controlled release system should be highlighted as they can prolong the residual effect of formulations [51,149,[165][166][167] due to controlled release. Formulation development of natural products also poses a challenge for the application of these materials but it is imperative to improve both efficiency and cost-effectiveness [150,165]. Investing in botanical natural product formulations is an important advance in increasing the availability of commercial eco-friendly insecticides for Ae.…”

Carvacrol Derivatives with Potential Insecticidal Activity

“…Synthetic pesticides have been used for decades to manage pest control in crops, in order to avoid considerable damage and production losses due to pathogens, insects and other pest species [1,2]. Nowadays, because of environmental and health issues, synthetic pesticides are being gradually replaced by botanical pesticides [2,3].…”

Evaluation of baiting fipronil-loaded silica nanocapsules against termite colonies in fields

“…Progress in the development of nanocarriers has created a library of delivery systems for various pesticides like insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides [7, 8, 9]. In this regard, nanocarriers synthesized based on lipids (e.g., liposome [10], nanoemulsions [11], and solid lipid nanoparticles [12, 13, 14]) and polymers (nanospheres [15, 16], nanogels [17, 18], and micelles [19, 20]) have been widely used.…”