Imazethapyr is an herbicide commonly used in the Midwestern U.S. on corn and soybean crops. Previous studies have observed photolysis as one of the major pathways of environmental degradation. The goal of this study was to determine the rate of degradation of imazethapyr on plant waxes, considering that the herbicide is applied directly to crops in the field. Imazethapyr solutions were irradiated on glass, aqueous, corn wax, and soybean wax surfaces under simulated UV light and analyzed using HPLC. The imazethapyr degraded the fastest on the aqueous and glass surfaces. The soybean wax was notably slower, and the corn wax showed little degradation. This suggests that the composition of the plant wax has a significant slowing effect on the degradation rate of imazethapyr. Current work is underway to characterize the waxes to understand the reason wax affects degradation, as well as studying degradation of imazethapyr on plant leaves.

Photdegradation of the herbicide Imaethapyr on soybean and corn wax

244th National Meeting (2012)

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