Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Many natural ingredients have been discovered to possess various pesticidal properties and some have been in use alternative to mostly chemical pesticides. Our target audience is ultimately growers and home gardeners who provide plant-based food including fruit and vegetables. If growers and gardeners have safe and effecitve biological pest controls, consumers will reap the benefits. The pioneer use of plant-based ingredients for the control of pests during production and delivery has been with organic producers. Despite the limitations and not so ideal efficacy, interests in finding plant-based pesticides have been steadily growing. The quality and sources of active ingredients from plant sources are paramount. However, even with the best ingredients the effectiveness may not fully realized. For example, neem oil is not easily solublized in water, which makes adequate delivery to plant sources difficult. Many other oils (e.g., clove oil, pyrethrum, etc.) are not miscrible with water. This property of poor water-solubility has become the very first hurdle in delivering the active oils to the target places such as the pith where the greening bacteria reside in citrus or the plant surfaces where absorption sites are aqueous environments. We are actively researching plant-based solubilizers to enable the active ingredients to move into target sites. As such our audience should be those in the organic production system or home gardening. Major agrochemical companies might be interested but they may not embrace them for row crops where chemical pesticides will continue to play a dominant role in managing crop production. In the interim, our audiences will be researchers, extension agents, farmers of small sizes, and home gardeners. Undergraduates and graduate students who are researching pesticides are also exposed to opportunities for developing new upgraded, environmentally- friendly pesticides for uses on crops, plants, people, and the environments. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The innovative research using natural ingredients as active ingredients as well as solubilizing ingredients were demonstrated in two undergraduate classes and has stired interest over the uses and potential of natural ingredients as active ingredients and solubilizing ingredients. One successful outcome is that an undergraduate undertook a project to control ball moss on ornamental plants by using natural ingredients that are safer than chemicals when they are applied in residential settings. More results will be forthcoming in the upcoming year. We will continue to showcase our research effort to undergraduate students as well as graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The solubilized essential oils and pyrethrum oil have been in samples for undergraduate students to observe and universtiy extension agents to test. There are also dissimination of samples to local citrus and nursery growers. The natural cleaner work has been reported to the soybean and grain promotion board. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final year of the project and completing it has been delayed due to the pandemic. During the extended final year, we will place greater efforts on working with extension agents and have solubilized samples delivered to the hands of growers, home gardeners, extension agents, students, and university researchers. We will also apply the solubilization techniques to more compounds that are better pesticides but get stuck in solubility and delivery. The focus will also be palced on the natural cleaners and more validation testing on additional pesticide products of different brands, formulation types, and target uses. We will also work with extension field personnel to have the antimicrobial essential oil formulation tested against fruit tree fireblight disease and walnut flight disease. The anticipated completion of this project will also shed some lights on future new projects that can use the promising findings.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
After solubility enhancement we evaluated the biological and chemical stability of the solubility-enhanced products. We continued to optimize and testing our cleaning formulation. The formulation is composed of all natural ingredients from plants with none of organic solvents or any chemicals. It was enabled by the use of natural ingredients that served as solubilizers. In laboratory testing, the cleaner removed residues of several herbicides from spray hoses. We havce focused on an herbicide dicamba. It was very effective in managing row crops and eliminating weed problems. However, soybean crops are particularly sensitive to dicamba and small amount of residue could lead to crop damage and yield reduction. It is an urgent agricultural need by growers to have sprayers thoroughly cleaned before they are used for other purposes in the soybean fields. Even by following stringent protocol of cleaning after use, there are no available cleaners that can effectively remove dicamba from the spraying hoses and other parts that came into contact. After observing a preliminary study in the field, we conducted a field test on soybean plants. A commercial tank cleaner product was used as a control. The non-contaminated hoses were used as blank control. Our natural cleaner removed substantial amount of dicamba so that the cleaned hoses no longer retained dicamba in the amount that caused damage and reduced soybean yield, comparable to the un-contaminated control. The commercial cleaner, on the other hand left damaging amount of dicamba in the hose, damaged soybean plants when they were released, and reduced soybean yield by 23%. This is a major accomplishment and warrants expanded testing of the natural cleaner on other brands of dicamba products and other pesticides, especially the emulsifiable concentrate products where the active ingredients were lipid-soluble and more prone to attach to the internal surfaces of the spray hoses. We are gearing up to test on quite a few of such herbicide products. Another major accomplishment is the achievements of water-soluble formulations for pyrethrum oil and essential oils of clove, thyme, and tea tree. The oil droplets were measured to be nano sizes, stable over time and pH range, and effective in inhibiting or killing insect pests (aphids and stink bugs) and bacteria in contact. We were able to move the lab test results out to the field and onto fruit trees to observe phytotoxicity and some effectiveness in controlling baterial diseases in walnut, apple, and pear trees. We will continue to work with growers and extension agents to evaluate the solubilized natural oils for potential pest controls.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Ronald A. Hill, Zhijun Liu and Yong-Yu Liu. 2020. Small ceramide tames big p53 mutant beast. Oncotarget, Vol. 11, (No. 37), pp: 3418-3419.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Sachin K. Khiste, Zhijun Liu, Kartik R. Roy, Mohammad B. Uddin, Salman B. Hosain, Xin Gu, Sami Nazzal, Ronald A. Hill, Yong-Yu Liu*. 2020. Ceramide-Rubusoside Nanomicelles, a Potential Therapeutic Approach to Target Cancers Carrying p53 Missense Mutations. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 19:56474.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Jianzhong Chen, Sachin K Khiste, Xiaomei Fu, Kartik R. Roy, Yixuan Dong, Jian Zhang, Mei Liu, Yong-Yu Liu, and Zhijun Liu*. Rubusoside-assisted solubilization of poorly soluble C6-ceramide for a pilot pharmacokinetic study. Prostaglandins and Other Lipid Mediators 146 (2020) 106402.
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Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Nature is the storehouse of many active ingredients including those that can be used to protect plant and improve human health. Our target audience is ultimately growers who provide plant-based food including fruit and vegetables and consumers who want to stay healthy or improve their health by supplementing thier diet with plant ingredients. In either case, we rely on plant-based ingredients to empower growers in their management of plant production and consumers to take in quality controlled herbal supplements. The quality and sources of active ingredients are paramount in the first palce, however, even with the best quality ingredients the effectiveness may not fully exploited. This is because many active ingredients, regardless of uses in protecting plants or human health, are not compatible to the aqueous systems in plants or human bodies if they are lipids or lipid-soluble. Clove oil, for example, is oil that is not dispersible in water. This property has become the very first hurdle in delivering the oil to the target places such as the pith where the greening bacteria reside in citrus plants or blood stream where absorption sites are aqueous environments. We are actively researching plant-based solubilizers to enable the active ingredients to move into target sites. As such our audience should be those in the organic production system or home gardening, and in the supplements industry. Major agrochemical companies might be interested but they may not embrace them for row crops where chemical pesticides will continue to play dominant roles in managing crop production. In the interim and interface, it'll be researchers and developers that are potential audience because this project can very likely help them overcome the very first hurdle, i.e., putting active ingredients in water. Undergraduates and graduate students who are researching pesticides are also exposed to opportunities for developing new upgraded, environmentally friendlier pesticides for uses on crops, plants, people, and the environments. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The innovative research using natural ingredients were demonstrated in two undergraduate classes and has stired interest over the uses and potential of natural ingredients as active ingredients and solubilizing ingredients. We will continue to showcase our research effort to undergraduate students as well as graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The natural cleaner work has been reported to the soybean and grain promotion board. The effectiveness of the solubilized essential oils was communicated and showcased with the actual sample to researchers who were on the testing side. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will prioritize the accomplished results and carry continued effort into the next year. The focus will be given to the natural cleaners and test it on more pesticide products of different brands, formulation types, and target uses. We will also work with extension field personnel to have the antimicrobial essential oil formulation tested against fruit tree fireblight disease. The same degree of effort will also be placed on testing the solubilized essential oil as organic pesticide (e.g., bactericide, fungicide, insect repellent and insecticide).
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We continued to optimize and testing our cleaning formulation. The formulation is composed of all natural ingredients from plants with none of organic solvents or any chemicals. It was enabled by the use of natural ingredients that served as solubilizers. In laboratory testing, the cleaner removed residues of several herbicides from spray hoses. One herbicide was dicamba. It was very effective in managing row crops and eliminate weed problems. However, soybean crops are particularly sensitive to dicamba and small amount of residue has led to crop damage and yield reduction. It is an urgent agricultural need by growers to have sprayers thoroughly cleaned before they are used for other purposes in the soybean fields. Even by following stringent protocol of cleaning after use, there are no available cleaners that can effectively remove dicamba from the spraying hoses and other parts that came into contact. After observing excellent results in the laboratory, a field test on soybean plants was performed. A commercial tank cleaner product was used as a control. The non-contaminated hoses were used as blank control. Our natural cleaner removed substantial amount of dicamba so that the cleaned hoses no longer retained dicamba in the amount that caused damage and reduced soybean yield, comparable to the un-contaminated control. The commercial cleaner, on the other hand left damaging amount of dicamba in the hose, damaged soybean plants when they were released, and reduced soybean yield by 23%. This is a major accomplishment and warrants expanded testing of the natural cleaner on other brands of dicamba products and other pesticides, especially the emulsifiable concentrate products where the active ingredients were lipid-soluble and more prone to attach to the internal surfaces of the spray hoses. Another major accomplishment is the natural formulation developed for essential oils of clove, thyme, and tea tree. The oil droplets were measured to be nano sizes, stable over time and pH range, and effective in inhibiting or killing bacteria in contact. We were able to move the lab test results out to the field and onto fruit trees to observe phytotoxicity. The absence of phytotoxicity has prompted efficacy study next year.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Jianzhong Chen, Sachin K Khiste, Xiaomei Fu, Kartik R. Roy, Yixuan Dong, Jian Zhang, Mei Liu, Yong-Yu Liu, and Zhijun Liu*. Rubusoside-assisted solubilization of poorly soluble C6-ceramide for a pilot pharmacokinetic study. Submitted to Prostaglandins and Other Lipid Mediators
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Daniel R. Swale, Zhilin Li, Jake Z. Kraft, Kristen Healy, Mei Liu, Zhijun Liu, Lane D. Foil. 2018. Development of an autodissemination strategy for the deployment of novel control agents targeting the Common Malaria Mosquito, Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae). PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 12(4):e0006259.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Jian ZHANG, Zhijun LIU, Guixin CHOU, Yunyi LAN. A novel combination of betulonic acid facilitated by rubusoside induce tumor cell apoptosis vis caspase regulation. Submitted to Cancer Biology & Therapy
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Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Plant defense chemicals are sources of natural pesticides and hold special promises in protecting organic production. In addition to being sources of active compounds, plants also offer tools that can be used to deliver pesticidal compounds, whether they are synthetic or natural. Current pesticides using synthetic ingredients have various issues and rooms to improve regarding efficacy or safety to the environments. Many emulsifiable concentrates (EC) for example have been formulated to be dispersable when prepared for spray solution but with partial solubility, which limits full efficacy. The results of these shortcomings often are met with more uses of pesticides, which clearly end up more into the environments. Enhancing the solubility to a full extent will likely increase the efficacy. Moreover, the use of botanical solubilizers, espacially those listed as GRAS, eases concerns to human health and the environment. The concept has been demonstrated in several pesticides including herbicides flumioxazine, 2,4-D acid, atrazine, fungicides captan, and insecticides methprene, pyrethrum, novaluron.The target audience is currently scientists who are facing the issues of low solubility in conducting experiments or trying to improve the outcomes. Eventually, our audience will inclode agrochemical companiesthat may seek better solutions to their current products and hope to increase the efficacy and reduce environmental toxicity. Undergraduates and graduate students who are researching pesticides are also exposedto opportunities for developing new upgraded, environmentally friendlier pesticides for uses on crops, plants, people, and the environments. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The new approach to employing natural ingredients to deliver pesticides or remove depositsis eye opening for undergradaute and graduate students. The research project has served to inspire new thinking about the use of botanical compounds in delivering or removing pesticide compounds. It strongly demonstrates the potential synergy when disciplines join hands in solving real world problems. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Use of botanical solubilizers has been illustrated and published, Moreover, the novel solubility method has been communicated to growers of soybeans and other grain crops. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Priority will be given to those that show most promising preliminary results. We will continue to seek the best areas where our research can make an impact.In addition to cleaning herbicide residues, we will work with our collaborators in developing specifically tailored formulations that can enhance bioavailability of the antibacterial agent for use in controlling citrus greening disease. We will also focus on using natural antimicrobial agents to control food borne and plant borne bacteria, especially for organic production.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The work in using natural ingredients to serve as solubilizing compounds brought us to develop new types of cleaners for cleaning pesticide residues left in the spray tank and boom. There are many pesticide products that are inadequately solubilized in their formulations. These are especially obvious in the emulsifiable products where dilution with tap water during the preparation of spray solutions immediately generates large oil droplets. These large oil droplets shown as milky appearance become adhered to the boom surface, rendering them harder to be cleaned. The most urgent concern is the cleaning of dicamba herbicide. Dicamba causes crop injuries easily when it is not thoroughly cleaned off the spraying equipment. Soybean is very sensitive to dicamba. To address this urgent need, we have set out field tests to evaluate the effectiveness of cleaning with our new type of cleaners and using a new method that is different from the conventional triple-rinse method. Auxin herbicide 2,4-D is another agent widely used in crops. We discovered that the various degrees of pesticide deposits are strongly associated with product formulations.2,4-D amine is water-soluble and least in generating residues inside the spraying equipment. 2,4-D acid is less soluble thus deposited more residues inside the spraying equipment. The worst was observed on 2,4-D ester. It was not water-soluble thus left inside the spraying equipment with heavy deposits. The conventional triple-rinse method has little effect in removing these deposits. However, our new type of cleaners worked effectively, especially for the poorly soluble 2,4-D ester. The oxytetracycline (OTC) antibacterial agent has been shown to effectively kill the bacterium that causes the citrus greening disease. However, in real world situation, OTCwas found not active due to its low bioavailability. How to deliver OTC to the disease site is very challenging. The PI in this Hatch project developed a nanoencapsulated OTC. It is hoped this encapsulation will enhance the bioavailability thus efficacy. It'll be the focus of next year to see if the work will be fruitful.These accomplishments at this stage served as proof of concept and support continued research into next year.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Daniel R. Swale, Zhilin Li, Jake Z. Kraft, Kristen Healy, Mei Liu, Zhijun Liu, Lane D. Foil. 2018. Development of an autodissemination strategy for the deployment of novel control agents targeting the Common Malaria Mosquito, Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae). PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (accepted).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
E.C. Silva, P. L. Abhayawardhana , A. V. Lygin, C. L. Robertson, M. Liu, Z. Liu, and R.W. Schneider. 2018. Coumestrol confers partial resistance in soybean plants against Cercospora leaf blight. Phytopathology 108:935-947.
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Progress 06/06/17 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Farmers, pesticide toxicologists in academia and industry, students Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The research introduces a new concept in employing botanical solubilizers to formulate pesticides. The laboratory experiments on solubility enhancement and translation into field tests exposed graduate students with future better forms of pesticides in the making. Finally, it serves as a great platform to bring natural product chemists with weed scientists and plant physiologists together. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Use of botanical solubilizers has been illustrated and published, Moreover, the novel solubility method has been communicated to other scientists at academic institutions via email introduction and phone calls. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to identify critical issues that reduce the effective uses of pesticides and approach them with solubility enhancement as major solutions. In addition to herbicides, we have identified other needs. Among them is the solubility enhancement of cercosporin for biochemical investigations on its pathogenesis, solubilizing herbicide residues that are deposited on sprayers, and botanical formulations for postharvest sanitaton. Botanical insecticides are also on the agenda with the focus of organic produce.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Flumioxazine is an aquatic herbicide delivered in sub-surface injection. The agent is poorly soluble and only becomes a suspension with constant agitation for injection. Moreover, it has a short half-life under high pH that quickly degrades it to a non-active form. We used a botanical solubilizers and achieved full solubility. Encapsulation also extended the half-life from 16 minutes to over 100 minutes. This success was translated to field test against hydrilla and proved to be more effective than the current product. Through collaboration with a weed scientist we have reached out to more than three companies. Auxin herbicide 2,4-D is another agent we worked with to enhance its solubility. The 2,4-Dacid form expresses low solubility and the ester form is even poorer. We enhanced 2,4-D acid into a water-soluble concentrate that is fully soluble and dilutable. A field experiment found it is better than the amine against water hyacinth. The ester form should be enhanced to a greater level but future experiments will confirm this prediction.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Zhijun Liu, William E. Owens, Yixuan Dong, and Jian Zhang. 2017. Antibacterial botanical formulations. Louisiana Agriculture 60 (1): 11-13.
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