Simple Osthole/Nanocarrier Pesticide Efficiently Controls Both Pests and Diseases Fulfilling the Need of Green Production of Strawberry

Abstract

The application of botanical pesticides is a good choice in organic agriculture. However, most botanical pesticides have limitations of slow action and short persistence for pest and disease management, which constrain their further application. With the objective of exploring a green pesticide for controlling strawberry pests and diseases simultaneously, a star polymer (SPc) with a low production cost was synthesized as a pesticide nanocarrier through simple reactions. The SPc complexed with osthole quickly through electrostatic interaction and hydrophobic association, which decreased the particle size of osthole down to the nanoscale (17.66 nm). With the help of SPc, more nano-sized osthole was delivered into cytoplasm through endocytosis, leading to the enhanced cytotoxicity against insect cells. As a green botanical pesticide, the control efficacy of the osthole/SPc complex was improved against main strawberry pests (green peach aphid and two-spotted spider mite) and disease (powdery mildew), which fulfilled the need of both pest and disease management in sustainable production of strawberry. Meanwhile, the introduction of SPc not only improved plant-uptake but also decreased the residue of osthole due to the higher degradation rate. Furthermore, the application of the osthole/SPc complex exhibited no influence on the strawberry fruit quality and nontarget predators. To our knowledge, it is the first success to control plant pests and diseases simultaneously for sustainable agriculture by only one pesticidal formulation based on nanoparticle-delivered botanical pesticides.

A nanocarrier pesticide delivery system with promising benefits in the case of dinotefuran: strikingly enhanced bioactivity and reduced pesticide residue

“…Consistent with previous studies, SPc can combine with synthetic/botanical pesticides such as thiamethoxam, matrine, osthole and chitosan through various interactions to improve their physical-chemical properties. [17][18][19][20] Different interaction mechanisms of SPc with pesticides are beneficial for expanding the application area of SPc, and SPc may be a promising adjuvant for pesticide nanometerization.…”

“…46,49,52 Our previous studies also revealed that SPc could increase the plant uptake of thiamethoxam and osthole by 1.69-1.84 and 1.28 times, respectively. 18,19 Bioactivity of the dinotefuran/SPc complex against green peach aphids…”

“…18 The SPc-delivered osthole was also nanosized to 17.66 nm to increase the control efficacy of strawberry pests and disease. 19 The SPc-chitosan complex (17.4 nm) activates the endocytosis pathway of plants to amplify the defence responses to control potato late blight. 20 Therefore, SPc is a suitable adjuvant to deliver various synthetic/botanical pesticides or plant elicitors to improve their bioactivity, exhibiting good potential for field application.…”

Construction and application of star polycation nanocarrier-based microRNA delivery system in Arabidopsis and maize

“…Star polycation (SPc) nanoparticle has been designed and synthesized to construct a SPc-based transdermal dsRNA delivery system, which can be applied for efficient gene silencing and effective control toward aphids [ 26 , 27 ]. Subsequent application of SPc is limited to drug/dsRNA delivery for controlling plant diseases and pests [ 28 – 33 ]. Thus, the important function of SPc has not been fully elucidated, and the SPc may be applied to construct a miRNA delivery platform for plants.…”

Reduction of Acetylcholinesterase Inhibition Activity of Antiscolic Herbal Compounds by Bacilli Probiotics

“…It kills pests by paralyzing their nervous system after immediate contact and subsequently denaturalizing the albumen proteins in their bodies, which nally causes the insects to die of suffocation (Zanardi et al 2015). Osthole is coumarin compound from Fructus cnidii which also acts on the nervous system of pests, causing non-functional contraction of the muscles and eventually dying (Yan et al 2021). Some of these antiscolic herbal compounds (AHCs), i.e.…”