Recent requirements of the pesticide industry have become much severer, and pesticides (formulated products) are required to satisfy higher safety to both human beings and the environment, higher biological efficacy, lower price, and labor-saving. This review explains the outline of basic pesticide formulation technology, followed by recent advances in developing new formulations and application technologies. Labor-saving formulations and application technologies, environmental load reduction technologies, and user-friendly formulations and application technologies are elucidated.
Adverse outcome pathway (AOP)-based computational models provide state-of-the-art prediction for human skin sensitizers and are promising alternatives to animal testing. However, little is known about their applicability to pesticides due to scarce pesticide data for evaluation. Moreover, pesticides traditionally have been tested on animals without human data, making validation difficult. Direct application of AOP-based models to pesticides may be inappropriate since their original applicability domains were designed to maximize reliability for human response prediction on diverse chemicals but not pesticides. This study proposed to identify a consensus chemical space with concordant human responses predicted by the SkinSensPred online tool and animal testing data to reduce animal testing. The identified consensus chemical space for non-sensitizers achieved high concordance of 85% and 100% for the cross-validation and independent test, respectively. The reconfigured SkinSensPred can be applied as the first-tier tool for identifying non-sensitizers to reduce. animal testing for pesticides by 19.6%.
Slow-acting fipronil is one of the best components for controlling invasive ants. However, its efficacy against invasive Lepisiota frauenfeldi, which recently invaded Japan, remains unclear. Here, its acute toxicity to Le. frauenfeldi was assessed, and its lethal concentrations were compared with those against other invasive ants (Linepithema humile and Solenopsis invicta). The LC10 and LC50 values of fipronil for Le. frauenfeldi were significantly lower than the previously reported values for Li. humile and/or S. invicta, and its LC90 value against Le. frauenfeldi was in the same range as that required for Li. humile extermination. Additionally, Le. frauenfeldi can be more sensitive to fipronil than non-target arthropods. Therefore, recent fipronil-based Li. humile and S. invicta eradication/control programs may be effective against Le. frauenfeldi as well. Moreover, applying fipronil at dosages appropriate for Le. frauenfeldi would lead to effective Le. frauenfeldi extermination/control with low damage to other native species/ants.
A fluorescent labeled pyrazole derivative with a dansyl moiety (EH-DF) was synthesized. Design of EH-DF was carried out by using a dansyl moiety to substitute the naphthalene moiety of the parent compound (EH-1). At a concentration of 30 µM, EH-DF displayed biological activity on inducing a triple response in Arabidopsis seedlings. Compared with the non-chemical treated control, the hypocotyl length of EH-DF-treated Arabidopsis seedlings was reduced from approximately 9.2±0.7 mm to 2.4±0.2 mm. The length of the roots was reduced from 1.7±0.1 mm to 1.0±0.1 mm, and the curvature of the hook of Arabidopsis seedlings increased from 60±16 degrees to 245±35 degrees. The maxim excitation wavelength and emission wavelength of EH-DF were 350 and 535 nm, respectively. Data obtained via fluorescent microscope analysis indicated that intensive fluorescent signals of EH-DF were observed in the shoot of Arabidopsis seedlings.