Neem oil based nanopesticide as an environmentally-friendly formulation for applications in sustainable agriculture: An ecotoxicological perspective

摘要: Sustainable agriculture encourages practices that present low risks to the environment and human health. To this end, zein (corn protein) can be used develop nanocarrier systems capable of improving physicochemical properties biopesticides, reducing their possible toxicity. Neem oil extracted from Azadirachta indica tree contains many active ingredients including azadirachtin, which is ingredient in multiple commercially available biopesticides. In study, we describe preparation characterization neem oil-loaded nanoparticles, together with evaluation toxicity towards nontarget organisms, using Allium cepa, soil nitrogen cycle microbiota, Caenorhabditis elegans aiming achieve safer by design strategy. The spherical nanoparticles showed an average diameter 278 ± 61.5 nm a good stability during experiments. assays A. mitigated increase DNA relative damage index caused oil. Molecular genetic analysis microbiota revealed did not change number genes encode nitrogen-fixing enzymes denitrifying enzymes. C. elegans, had no toxic effect, while interfered pharyngeal pumping GST-4 protein expression. These promising results studies, opening perspectives for its use crop protection organic agriculture.