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BACKGROUND: The presence of barnyardgrass poses a threat to global food security by reducing rice yields. Currently, herbicides are primarily applied for weed management. However, the effectiveness of herbicide deposition and uptake on barnyardgrass is limited as a consequence of the high wax content on leaves, low water solubility and extreme lipophilicity of herbicides. Therefore, it is imperative to develop novel formulations for efficient delivery of herbicides to improve herbicidal activity and reduce dosage. RESULTS: We successfully prepared nanosuspension(s) (NS) of quinclorac through the wet media milling technique. This NS demonstrates excellent physical stability and maintains nanoscale during dose transfer. The deposition concentration and uptake concentration of NS on barnyardgrass were 3.84–4.47‐ and 2.11–2.58‐fold greater than those traditional formulations, respectively. Moreover, the NS exhibited enhanced herbicidal activity against barnyardgrass at half the dosage required by conventional formulations without compromising rice safety. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that NS can effectively facilitate the delivery of hydrophobic and poorly water‐soluble herbicide active ingredients, thereby enhancing their deposition, uptake and bioactivity. This study expands the potential application of NS in pesticide delivery, which can provide valuable support for optimizing pesticide utilization, improving economic efficiency and mitigating environmental risks. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticide spraying serves as a prevalent segment in crop production for substantial economic and ecological benefits. Nevertheless, the existing pesticide formulations are often plagued by droplets rebounding during the spraying process, and the controlled‐release, photolysis protection, and non‐targeted bio‐friendliness are not inadequately considered. Herein, by combining spinosad (SSD, a model pesticide) with glycyrrhizic acid (GL) as an attractive building block, a supramolecular co‐assembly strategy is employed to elaborate pesticide formulations (GL‐SSD) simultaneously featuring high deposition, controlled‐release, and environmental friendliness. The resulting spherical GL‐SSD nanoparticles (NPs) have an average diameter of 207 nm and show an improved 5.2‐fold photostability compared with commercial spinosad suspension (SSD SC). Upon impacting on hydrophobic surfaces of polytetrafluoroethylene film and cabbage leaf, the droplets of GL‐SSD NPs exhibit superior affinity to the micro/nano structure of the surface. Consequently, the droplet rebounding is inhibited effectively, ensuring high deposition efficiency of droplets on surfaces. In addition, the release of SSD from GL‐SSD NPs can be controlled by pH variation. Indoor toxicity and pot experiments demonstrate that GL‐SSD NPs possess good control efficacy against Plutella xylostella. The work offers an alternative approach for the development of multi‐functional and sustainable pesticide formulations with promising potentials in actual agriculture production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polylactic acid-glycolic acid copolymer (PLGA) has been proven to be applicable in medicine, but there is limited research on its application and safety in the agricultural field. In this paper, thifluzamide PLGA microspheres were prepared via phacoemulsification and solvent volatilization, using the PLGA copolymer as the carrier and thifluzamide as the active component. It was found that the microspheres had good slow-release performance and fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia solani. A comparative study was conducted to show the effect of thifluzamide PLGA microspheres on cucumber seedlings. Physiological and biochemical indexes of cucumber seedlings, including dry weight, root length, chlorophyll, protein, flavonoids, and total phenol content, indicated that the negative effect of thifluzamide on plant growth could be mitigated when it was wrapped in PLGA microspheres. This work explores the feasibility of PLGA as carriers in fungicide applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]