Chiral determination of a novel acaricide cyflumetofen enantiomers in cucumber, tomato, and apple by HPLC: Liquid Chromatography

Sublethal Effects Induced by a Cyflumetofen Formulation on Honeybee Apis mellifera L. Workers: Assessment of Midgut, Hypopharyngeal Glands, and Fat Body Integrity

Worldwide, both cultivated and wild plants are pollinated by the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Bee numbers are declining as a result of a variety of factors, including increased pesticide use. Cyflumetofen controls pest mites in some plantations pollinated by bees, which may be contaminated with residual sublethal concentrations of this pesticide, in nectar and pollen. We evaluated the effects of a sublethal concentration of a cyflumetofen formulation on the midgut, hypopharyngeal gland, and fat body of A. mellifera workers orally exposed for 72 h or 10 days. The midgut epithelium of treated bees presented digestive cells with cytoplasm vacuoles and some cell fragmentation, indicating autophagy and cell death. After being exposed to the cyflumetofen formulation for 72 h, the midgut showed a higher injury rate than the control bees, but after 10 days, the organs had recovered. In the hypopharyngeal gland of treated bees, the end apparatus was filled with secretion, suggesting that the acaricide interferes with the secretory regulation of this gland. Histochemical tests revealed differences in the treated bees in both exposure periods in the midgut and hypopharyngeal glands. The acaricide caused cytotoxic effects on the midgut digestive cells, with apical protrusions, plasma membrane rupture, and several vacuoles in the cytoplasm, features of cell degeneration. In the hypopharyngeal glands of the treated bees, the secretory cells presented small electron-dense and large electron-lucent secretory granules. The fat body cells had no changes in comparison with the control bees. In conclusion, the cyflumetofen formulation at sublethal concentrations causes damage to the midgut and the hypopharyngeal glands of honey bee, which may compromise the functions of these organs and colony fitness. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:2455-2465. © 2024 SETAC.

Exploring the effects of the acaricide cyflumetofen on the vital organs of the honey bee Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers

Bees are important for maintaining ecosystems, pollinating crops and producing marketable products. In recent years, a decline in bee populations has been reported, with multifactorial causes, including the intensification of pesticide use in agriculture. Among pesticides, cyflumetofen is an insecticide and acaricide used in apple, coffee and citrus crops, whose main pollinator is the honey bee Apis mellifera. Therefore, this bee is a potential target of cyflumetofen during foraging. This study evaluated the histopathological and cytological damage in the midgut, hypopharyngeal glands and fat body of A. mellifera workers exposed to LC50 of cyflumetofen. The midgut epithelium of exposed bees presented cytoplasmic vacuolization, release of vesicles and cell fragments, which indicate autophagy, increased production of digestive enzymes and cell death, respectively. The cytological analysis of the midgut revealed the dilation of the basal labyrinth and the presence of spherocrystals in the digestive cells. The hypopharyngeal glands produced greater amounts of secretion in treated bees, whereas no changes were observed in the fat body. The results indicate that acute exposure to cyflumetofen negatively affect A. mellifera, causing damage to the midgut and changes in the hypopharyngeal glands, which may compromise the survival and foraging of this pollinator.

Fate characteristics and risk quantification of cyflumetofen from tomato cultivation to processing based on large-scale applications

Elucidating the fate characteristics of cyflumetofen and its main metabolite 2-TFMBA in tomato from cultivation to processing is crucial for safeguarding the environment and humans from hazardous effects. Cyflumetofen and 2-TFMBA could exist stably in tomato matrices for at least 343 days under frozen and dark conditions according to UHPLC-MS/MS, with a limit of quantitation of 0.001 mg/kg and retention time within 2.12 min. The occurrence, dissipation, and concentration variation of cyflumetofen were reflected by original depositions of 0.02-0.44 mg/kg, half-lives of 1.7-7.2 days, and terminal magnitudes of 0.005-0.30 mg/kg, respectively, with various influencing factors, e.g., climate conditions and tomato cultivars. Additionally, 13.5-59.3% of cyflumetofen was metabolized to 2-TFMBA, showing significant toxicological effects ranging from cultivation to processing. When the concentration decreased by 0.06 mg/kg, cyflumetofen was effectively removed by peeling, while washing was the recommended method for removing 2-TFMBA with a processing factor of 0.70. The comparative dietary risks of sum cyflumetofen were assessed for all life cycle populations using deterministic and probabilistic models. The risk quotients decreased to 1.3-4.8 times during the preparation of home canning tomato paste. Despite the low exposure risk, the potential health hazards of sum cyflumetofen should be considered, given its ubiquity and cumulative effects.

Enantioselective Behaviors of Chiral Pesticides and Enantiomeric Signatures in Foods and the Environment

Unreasonable application of pesticides may result in residues in the environment and foods. Chiral pesticides consist of two or more enantiomers, which may exhibit different behaviors. This Review intends to provide progress on the enantioselective residues of chiral pesticides in foods. Among the main chiral analytical methods, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the most frequently utilized. Most chiral pesticides are utilized as racemates; however, due to enantioselective dissipation, bioaccumulation, biodegradation, and chiral conversion, enantiospecific residues have been found in the environment and foods. Some chiral pesticides exhibit strong enantioselectivity, highlighting the importance of evaluation on an enantiomeric level. However, the occurrence characteristics of chiral pesticides in foods and specific enzymes or transport proteins involved in enantioselectivity needs to be further investigated. This Review could help the production of some chiral pesticides to single-enantiomer formulations, thereby reducing pesticide consumption as well as increasing food production and finally reducing human health risks.

Preparation of cyflumetofen nanocapsules and study on the controlled release performance and its field efficacy

BACKGROUND

In this study, 5% cyflumetofen nanocapsules were prepared by interfacial polymerization with isophorone diisocyanate and polyethylene glycol as the reaction monomer, and tristyrylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (601-P) as the emulsifier. The physical, chemical and sustained release properties of cyflumetofen nanocapsules were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, laser particle size analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, contact angles testing and high-performance liquid chromatography.

RESULTS

The results indicated that cyflumetofen nanocapsules were spherical, with an average particle size of 100 nm, and an encapsulation efficiency and loading rate of 86% and 32%, respectively. The thermal and cold storage stabilities of cyflumetofen nanocapsules were good. Under high temperature, lower pH or a high core-wall ratio, nanoparticle release is faster. The field efficacy experiment indicated that the efficacy of cyflumetofen nanocapsules against Panonychus citri reached 97%, 30 days after spraying, significantly greater than that of a 20% cyflumetofen suspension.

CONCLUSION

It is important to increase the stability, lengthen the release period and improve the efficacy of cyflumetofen in cyflumetofen nanocapsules. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Resistant inheritance and cross-resistance of cyflumetofen in Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval)

As a new acaricide, cyflumetofen can effectively control Tetranychus, Panonychus, as well as other phytophagous mites. But its risk and the way of genetic and resistant inheritance in mites are not clear. In this study, two cyflumetofen-resistant strains (CyR and YN-CyR) were selected for 104 and 12 generations, and developed 104.7-fold and 25.6-fold resistance, respectively. Three crossing groups (CyR_80 × SS, CyR_104 × SS, YN-CyR × SS) were conducted to explore the resistant inheritance of cyflumetofen in T. cinnabarinus changed along with resistant level or not. The results of reciprocal crosses and backcrosses revealed that the incomplete recessive and multiple genes trait involved in two resistant strains. The different stage of resistance also has a same genetic trait. A cross-resistance study revealed that there was no cross-resistance between cyflumetofen and other four acaricides including avermectin, fenpropathrin, propargite and bifenazate respectively, but the cross-resistance to pyridaben reached a high level with 63.8-fold, which indicates an underlying mechanism that can both mediate cyflumetofen- and pyridaben-resistance in T. cinnabarinus.

Distribution behaviour of acaricide cyflumetofen in tomato during home canning

The distribution behaviour of cyflumetofen in tomatoes during home canning was studied. The targeted compound cyflumetofen was determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) after each process step, which included washing, peeling, homogenisation, simmering and sterilisation. Results indicated that more cyflumetofen was removed by washing with detergent solution compared with tap water, 2% NaCl solution and 2% CH3COOH solution. Peeling resulted in 90.2% loss of cyflumetofen and was the most effective step at removing pesticide residues from tomatoes. The processing factors (PFs) of tomato samples after each step were generally less than 1; in particular, the PF of the peeling process for cyflumetofen was 0.28.

Enantioselective separation and pharmacokinetic dissipation of cyflumetofen in field soil by ultra-performance convergence chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

Little data on the enantioselective separation of cyflumetofen exists, despite the fact that such data are essential to the assessment of the fate and potential toxic effects of cyflumetofen enantiomers. To address this issue, a simple and sensitive method for the enantioselective determination of cyflumetofen enantiomers in soil has been established using ultra performance convergence chromatography tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The effects of the chiral stationary phases, mobile phase, auto backpressure regulator pressure, column temperature, flow rate of the mobile phase, and compensation pump solvent were evaluated. The proposed method was applied to the study of the pharmacokinetic dissipation of cyflumetofen stereoisomers in soil under greenhouse conditions. The estimated half-life of cyflumetofen isomers ranged from 12.2 to 13.6 days, and statistically significant enantioselective degradation was observed. This study not only demonstrates that there is an efficient and sensitive method for cyflumetofen enantioseparation, but also provides the first experimental evidence of the pharmacokinetic dissipation of cyflumetofen stereoisomers in the environment.