NANOPARTICLES OF ALGINATE / CHITOSAN AS A CARRIER OF IMAZAPYR SYSTEM AND IMPAZAPIC: THE PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION EVALUATION OF GENOTOXICITY

• Grant number: 13/07002-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2013
• End date: February 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Chemistry of Macromolecules
• Principal Investigator: Renata de Lima
• Grantee: Cintia Rodrigues Maruyama
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria Acadêmica. Universidade de Sorocaba (UNISO). Sorocaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The demand for food is increasing annually, and to supply her producers use different methods aimed at increasing agricultural production. One such method is the use of herbicides, which prevent the crops from infesting weeds, thus reducing the competition for nutrients from the soil. However, the increased use of pesticides is alarming since these are often used interchangeably and incorrectly applied, can lead to health problems in farmers and environmental damage. The use of pesticides over the years has led to the accumulation of waste chemicals harmful, leading to contamination of water, soil and air. In search of solutions nanotechnology has been developing several alternatives for increasing agricultural production, with the aim of improving the application of pesticides in plantations and thus reduce damage to human health and the environment. However, the use of nanotechnology demand an investigation of the possible toxic effects resulting from this technology, particularly with respect to contamination of soils and waters. Thus, this study aims to prepare and characterize a carrier systems composed of nanoparticles of alginate / chitosan to imazapyr and imazapic, widely used in cultures of sugar cane, peanuts and pine, as well as analyze the cyto and genotoxicity these new systems, using for that cell viability assays, comet assay and Allium cepa test in order to ascertain the potential application of these systems. Although this project will be assessed the effect of exposure to herbicides encapsulated or not on the microbiota of soils through the use of molecular techniques for microbial verification of the effects of the system on communal land, and thus ensure the safety of the system used.