Agrochemicals have been used throughout the ages to eradicate weeds and pests. Use of agrochemicals is now commonplace, serving as an aid in farming procedures and contributing to greater agricultural production. Howe...Agrochemicals have been used throughout the ages to eradicate weeds and pests. Use of agrochemicals is now commonplace, serving as an aid in farming procedures and contributing to greater agricultural production. However, the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals is a cause for concern because they can exert toxic effects on the environment and hence on living beings. This work involved a genotoxic analysis of controlled release formulations of the herbicide ametryn encapsulated in microspheres of poly（hydroxybutyrate） and poly（hydroxybutyrate-co^valerate）. Genotoxicity was analyzed using cytogenetic, micronucleus, comet and Allium cepa assays, as well as molecular analysis. The results showed that the rate of chromosome breakdown caused by unencapsulated ametryn was much higher than that caused by ametryn encapsulated in the polymer microspheres （p 〈 0.05）. This indicates that controlled release delivery systems employing the polymer formulations should be significantly safer for the environment and for living beings.展开更多
文摘Agrochemicals have been used throughout the ages to eradicate weeds and pests. Use of agrochemicals is now commonplace, serving as an aid in farming procedures and contributing to greater agricultural production. However, the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals is a cause for concern because they can exert toxic effects on the environment and hence on living beings. This work involved a genotoxic analysis of controlled release formulations of the herbicide ametryn encapsulated in microspheres of poly（hydroxybutyrate） and poly（hydroxybutyrate-co^valerate）. Genotoxicity was analyzed using cytogenetic, micronucleus, comet and Allium cepa assays, as well as molecular analysis. The results showed that the rate of chromosome breakdown caused by unencapsulated ametryn was much higher than that caused by ametryn encapsulated in the polymer microspheres （p 〈 0.05）. This indicates that controlled release delivery systems employing the polymer formulations should be significantly safer for the environment and for living beings.
