Pesticide usage is required in order to maximize production of produce in a variety of environments, however, pesticide use often results in economic and health repercussions for farmers and consumers. The EPA estimates that 20,000 farmers are poisoned each year in the US, while the WHO estimates several million global cases of pesticide poisoning each year with 370,000 reported deaths in 2012. Organophosphate pesticides are one of the most common classes of pesticides used throughout the world. AgroSpheres has invented and patented a biological device capable of quickly degrading organophosphate pesticides into non-toxic derivatives. AgroSpheres hypothesizes that this biological device is capable of removing organophosphate pesticide residues on the leaves of crops. To test this hypothesis, we initially characterized the physio-chemical properties of AgroSpheres by molecular and microscopy techniques and verified enzymatic activity kinetically in vitro. We next extended these studies to field trials, testing and verifying enhanced pesticide degradation on 15 grape vines at selected vineyards in Virginia. Malathion, a commonly used organophosphate pesticide (half-life 33.6 hours), was evenly sprayed onto 15 vines, which were then broken into 3 experimental conditions—catalytic AgroSpheres, inactive AgroSpheres, and no AgroSpheres. Leaves were collected from each of the 5 vines per experimental condition at various time points and samples were analyzed for residual pesticide via LC/MS. The mass spectrometry results indicated that we had degraded all malathion present within 4 hours with the catalytically active AgroSpheres, which was significantly different from untreated and inactive AgroSpheres applications (t-test and an ANOVA calculation (p&lt;0.05, F&gt;Fcrit)). These field trial results indicate the utility of AgroSpheres pesticide degradation technology.

Bioparticle-Based pesticide degradation using enzyme immobilization

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.