Author: Dileep K. Singh

Series Title: Toxicology: Agriculture and Environment

Pesticide Chemistry and Toxicology

Volume 1

eBook: US $29 Special Offer (PDF + Printed Copy): US $121
Printed Copy: US $107
Library License: US $116
ISSN: 2589-1480 (Print)
ISSN: 2211-2952 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-60805-531-9 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-60805-137-3 (Online)
Year of Publication: 2012
DOI: 10.2174/97816080513731120101

Introduction

Pesticide control involves killing pest organisms or otherwise preventing them from destructive behavior. Pesticides are either natural or synthetic and are applied to target pests in a myriad of formulations (EC,WP, SP, FP, G etc.) and application technology systems (sprays, baits, slow-release diffusion, dust, etc.). In recent years, the bacterial genes coding for insecticidal proteins have been incorporated into various crops that dealt with the mortality of the pests feeding on them. Many other eco-friendly methods for insect pest control such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM), use of bio-pesticides etc., are becoming popular. Bio-pesticides and IPM should show good growth in the future, as there is growing concern for the eco-friendly organic agriculture and could be achieved through Good Agriculture Practices (GAP).

Use of pesticides requires a proper understanding of the chemistry, their handling and their use in crop protection or hygiene. These are toxic chemicals and require a good understanding of therapy and antidotes at the time of poisoning. This e-book covers pesticide chemistry, metabolic/degradation pathways, biochemical toxicology, therapy and antidotes, nano-pesticides and terminologies associated with pesticide toxicology. The book should serve as a text book for academia, or as a reference work for agriculturists, environmentalists and industry professionals.

Indexed in: Book Citation Index, Science Edition, BIOSIS Previews, Scopus, EBSCO.

Foreword

I am delighted to introduce my student and the author of this book, Dileep K. Singh, an Associate Professor, in the Department of Zoology, University of Delhi, India. He has been teaching 'Pesticide Toxicology' at master level since 1996. He has contributed many research papers on environmental pesticide toxicology in peer reviewed journals with good impact factor. I know him personally and appreciate him for his sound knowledge in pesticide toxicology. He conceived the idea to write a book on pesticide toxicology somewhere in 2006, since then he has been working on it. I have seen his book on 'Pesticide chemistry and toxicology', which is informative and deals with different aspects of toxicology and chemistry associated with the pesticides. I specially appreciate his efforts to include a chapter on 'Pesticide Metabolism', which provides the information about the pesticide degradation in very lucid manner and well explained using figures with target site for pesticide metabolism.

Pesticide Metabolism is typically a two stage process. These are Phase I reactions and Phase II reactions. Phase I reactions, normally add a functional (polar reactive) group to the foreign molecule which enables the phase II reaction to take place. These reactions are catalyzed by the cytochrome P- 450 group of enzymes and other enzymes which are associated with endoplasmic reticulum. Phase I reaction includes microsomal oxidation and extramicrosomal metabolism of pesticides. Phase II reactions are conjugation reactions and involve the covalent linkage of the toxin or phase I product to a polar compound. In general, conjugated products are ionic, polar, less lipid soluble, less toxic and easily excretable from body.

I hope that this book will be very useful to the students of master and graduation level and also to the people working in different fields of pesticide toxicology.

Professor H.C.Agarwal
F.N.A.Sc., F.N.A.A.S. (Retired)
Insect Biochenistry & Toxicolog
Department of Zoology
University of Delhi
India


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