Development of triflumizole ionic liquids containing anions of natural origin for improving the utilization and minimizing the adverse impacts on aquatic ecosystems

Fabrication of Enzyme-Responsive Prodrug Self-Assembly Based on Fluazinam for Reducing Toxicity to Aquatic Organisms

Prodrug-based nanodrug delivery systems were drug formulations by covalently conjugating drugs with inversely polar groups via a cleavable bond to self-assemble into nanoparticles for efficient drug delivery. To improve the utilization efficiency of fluazinam (FZN), enzyme-responsive prodrugs were prepared by conjugating FZN with different alkyl aliphatic acids through a nucleophilic substitution reaction and subsequently self-assembled into nanoparticles (FZNP NPs) without using any harmful adjuvant. The obtained FZNP NPs exhibited excellent efficacies against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum as a result of improved physicochemical properties, including low surface tension, high retention, and enhanced photostability. The LC50 values of FZNP NPs toward zebrafish were 3-8 times that of FZN, which illustrated that the FZNP NPs reduced the detriments of FZN to the aquatic organisms while retaining good biological activity. Therefore, prodrug self-assembly technology would offer a potential method for improving the utilization efficiency of pesticides and lowering the risks to the ecological environment.

Efficient polymer-mediated delivery system for thiocyclam: Nanometerization remarkably improves the bioactivity toward green peach aphids

The unscientific application of synthetic pesticides has brought various negative effects on the environment, hindering the sustainable development of agriculture. Nanoparticles can be applied as carriers to improve pesticide delivery, showing great potential in the development of pesticide formulation in recent years. Herein, a star polymer (SPc) was constructed as an efficient pesticide nanocarrier/adjuvant that could spontaneously assemble with thiocyclam or monosultap into a complex, through hydrophobic association and hydrogen bonding, respectively, with the pesticide-loading contents of 42.54% and 19.3%. This complexation reduced the particle sizes of thiocyclam from 543.54 to 52.74 nm for pure thiocyclam, and 3 814.16 to 1 185.89 nm for commercial preparation (cp) of thiocyclam. Interestingly, the introduction of SPc decreased the contact angles of both pure and cp thiocyclam on plant leaves, and increased the plant uptake of cp thiocyclam to 2.4-1.9 times of that without SPc. Meanwhile, the SPc could promote the bioactivity of pure/cp thiocyclam against green peach aphids through leaf dipping method and root application. For leaf dipping method, the 50% lethal concentration decreased from 0.532 to 0.221 g/L after the complexation of pure thiocyclam with SPc, and that decreased from 0.390 to 0.251 g/L for cp thiocyclam. SPc seems a promising adjuvant for nanometerization of both pure and cp insecticides, which is beneficial for improving the delivery efficiency and utilization rate of pesticides.

Triflumizole Induces Developmental Toxicity, Liver Damage, Oxidative Stress, Heat Shock Response, Inflammation, and Lipid Synthesis in Zebrafish

Triflumizole (TFZ) toxicity must be investigated in the aquatic environment to understand the potential risks to aquatic species. Accordingly, the adverse effects of TFZ exposure in zebrafish were investigated. Results demonstrate that, after TFZ exposure, the lethal concentration 50 (LC50) in 3 d post-fertilization (dpf) embryos and 6 dpf larvae were 4.872 and 2.580 mg/L, respectively. The development (including pericardium edema, yolk sac retention, and liver degeneration) was apparently affected in 3 dpf embryos. Furthermore, the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in 6 dpf larvae were significantly increased. Additionally, the expression of heat shock response genes (including hsp70, grp78, hsp90, and grp94), inflammatory genes (including p65-nfκb, il-1β, and cox2a), and lipid synthetic genes (including srebp1, fas, acc, and ppar-γ) in 3 dpf embryos was significantly increased, which was also partially observed in the intestinal cell line form Pampus argenteus. Taken together, TFZ could affect the development of zebrafish, accompanied by disturbances of oxidative stress, heat shock response, inflammation, and lipid synthesis. Our findings provide an original insight into the potential risks of TFZ to the aquatic ecosystem.

Review of the toxic effects of ionic liquids

Interest in ionic liquids (ILs), called green or designer solvents, has been increasing because of their excellent properties such as thermal stability and low vapor pressure; thus, they can replace harmful organic chemicals and help several industrial fields e.g., energy-storage materials production and biomaterial pretreatment. However, the claim that ILs are green solvents should be carefully considered from an environmental perspective. ILs, given their minimal vapor pressure, may not directly cause atmospheric pollution. However, they have the potential to cause adverse effects if leaked into the environment, for instance if they are spilled due to human mistakes or technical errors. To estimate the risks of ILs, numerous ILs have had their toxicity assessed toward several micro- and macro-organisms over the past few decades. Since the toxic effects of ILs depend on the method of estimating toxicity, it is necessary to briefly summarize and comprehensively discuss the biological effects of ILs according to their structure and toxicity testing levels. This can help simplify our understanding of the toxicity of ILs. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the key findings of toxicological information of ILs, collect some toxicity data of ILs to different species, and explain the influence of IL structure on their toxic properties. In the discussion, we estimated two different sensitivity values of toxicity testing levels depending on the experiment condition, which are theoretical magnitudes of the inherent sensitivity of toxicity testing levels in various conditions and their changes in biological response according to the change in IL structure. Finally, some perspectives, future research directions, and limitations to toxicological research of ILs, presented so far, are discussed.

One-Pot Facile Synthesis of Double-Shelled Mesoporous Silica Microcapsules with an Improved Soft-Template Method for Sustainable Pest Management

A controlled release formulation based on silica microcapsules is an ideal selection to improve both the effective utilization and duration of pesticides to decrease ecological damage. Herein, a simple and green method for preparing double-shelled microcapsules was developed using a newly prepared quaternary ammonium ionic liquid (IL) as the functional additive to entrap avermectin (Ave) in mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) and tannic acid-Cu (TA-Cu) complex as the sealing agent to form the core-shell structure (Ave-IL@MSN@TA-Cu). The obtained microcapsules with an average size of 538 nm had pH-responsive release property and good stability in soil. The half-life of microcapsules (34.66 days) was 3 times that of Ave emulsifiable concentrate (EC) (11.55 days) in a test soil, which illustrated that microcapsules could protect Ave from rapid degradation by microorganisms by releasing TA, copper, and quaternary ammonium in the soil. Ave-IL@MSN@TA-Cu microcapsules had better nematicidal activity and antibacterial activity than Ave EC due to the synergistic effect of Ave, IL, and copper incorporated in the microcapsules. Pot experiments showed that the control efficacy of microcapsules was 87.10% against Meloidogyne incognita, which is better than that of Ave EC (41.94%) at the concentration of 1.0 mg/plant by the root-irrigation method after 60 days of treatment owing to the extended duration of Ave in microcapsules. The simple and green method for the preparation of double-shelled microcapsules based on natural quaternary ammonium IL would have tremendous potential for the extensive development of controlled release pesticide formulations.

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

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.

Ionic Liquids-A Review of Their Toxicity to Living Organisms

Ionic liquids (ILs) were initially hailed as a green alternative to traditional solvents because of their almost non-existent vapor pressure as ecological replacement of most common volatile solvents in industrial processes for their damaging effects on the environment. It is common knowledge that they are not as green as desired, and more thought must be put into the biological consequences of their industrial use. Still, compared to the amount of research studying their physicochemical properties and potential applications in different areas, there is a scarcity of scientific papers regarding how these substances interact with different organisms. The intent of this review was to compile the information published in this area since 2015 to allow the reader to better understand how, for example, bacteria, plants, fish, etc., react to the presence of this family of liquids. In general, lipophilicity is one of the main drivers of toxicity and thus the type of cation. The anion tends to play a minor (but not negligible) role, but more research is needed since, owing to the very nature of ILs, except for the most common ones (imidazolium and ammonium-based), many of them are subject to only one or two articles.

Preparation of Acifluorfen-Based Ionic Liquids with Fluorescent Properties for Enhancing Biological Activities and Reducing the Risk to the Aquatic Environment

In this work, 12 novel herbicidal ionic liquids (HILs) based on acifluorfen were prepared by pairing with the fluorescent hydrazides or different alkyl chains for increasing activities and reducing negative impacts on the aquatic environment. The results showed that the fluorescence of coumarin hydrazide in the HILs was applied as the internal and supplementary light source to meet the requirement of light wavelength range of acifluorfen, which improved the phytotoxicity of acifluorfen to weeds by enhancing singlet oxygen generation with increased sunlight utilization. The herbicidal activities of HILs were related positively with the length of chain of cation under high light intensity and depended mainly on the fluorescence characteristic of the cation under low light intensity, and the double salt IL forms of acifluorfen containing coumarin hydrazide and n-hexadecyltrimethylammonium had enhanced efficacies against broadleaf weeds in the field. Compared with acifluorfen sodium, HILs had lower water solubility, better surface activity, weaker mobility in soils, and higher decomposition temperature. These results demonstrated that HILs containing different cations provided a wider scope for fine-tuning of the physicochemical and biological properties of herbicides and established a promising way for the development of environmentally friendly herbicidal formulations.

An Overview on the Toxicological Properties of Ionic Liquids toward Microorganisms

Ionic liquids (ILs), a class of materials with unique physicochemical properties, have been used extensively in the fields of chemical engineering, biotechnology, material sciences, pharmaceutics, and many others. Because ILs are very polar by nature, they can migrate into the environment with the possibility of inclusion in the food chain and bioaccumulation in living organisms. However, the chemical natures of ILs are not quintessentially biocompatible. Therefore, the practical uses of ILs must be preceded by suitable toxicological assessments. Among different methods, the use of microorganisms to evaluate IL toxicity provides many advantages including short generation time, rapid growth, and environmental and industrial relevance. This article reviews the recent research progress on the toxicological properties of ILs toward microorganisms and highlights the computational prediction of various toxicity models.

“Sweet” ionic liquids comprising the acesulfame anion – synthesis, physicochemical properties and antifeedant activity towards stored product insects

The synthesized “sweet” ionic liquids comprising acesulfame anion proved to be effective antifeedants with designer physicochemical properties.