A comparison of a tannic acid biopesticide and a commercial fungicide used for crop protection against Fusarium head blight

Fungicides are typically used on crops to prevent pathogenic diseases. However, there are biopesticides that can inhibit the same pathogens as several fungicides. In particular, tannic acid can inhibit the growth of Fusarium graminearum, a fungus that causes Fusarium head blight. Fusarium head blight is a disease that affects gramineous hosts. Fungicides containing tebuconazole and prothioconazole, such as ProsaroTM, are commonly used to prevent the disease. As a safer alternative, tannic acid wax emulsions have been formulated as a treatment method. Analytical techniques consisting of QuEChERS extractions and HPLC have been developed to measure the residual amounts of each treatment. Determining the residual amounts will indicate whether the tannic acid formulation is adhering to the sample long enough to prevent the crop disease, as well as if it is rainfast. After developing methods to extract and analyze tannic acid, prothioconazole, and tebu-conazole residues, samples of barley grain were analyzed. Field trials of barley plots were used to examine the effectiveness of the tannic acid biopesticide. The effectiveness of the tannic acid biopesticide was determined by analysis of DON, deoxynivalenol, on the grain samples. DON is produced from the Fusarium fungus. Therefore, a low DON concentration means the sample was slightly infected, whereas a high DON concentration means the sample was more infected. An outside party performed these analyses. The average DON concentrations of the treatments seem to conrm that tannic acid treated barley is less infected than untreated barley. However, SAS analysis confirms that there is no significant difference in DON concentration of tannic acid treated barley and untreated barley. Grain samples from these plots were also analyzed for tannic acid or prothioconazole and tebuconazole residue.It was hypothesized that since treatment occurred prior to grain formation, that little to no residue would be present on the grain at harv