Pesticide is one of chemical substance that is used for killing pests. We will find pesticide in many industrial products and households. The use of pesticides has become a common practice around the world. Moreover, in many countries, many farmers still use this toxic substance for their agricultural need. They use it to kill pests and to gain the best result on the harvest day. In contrary, the consumers and the soil will face many kinds of disadvantage concerning the use of this toxic chemical substance, from heart disease, mental disorder, the infertile of the soil, and many more diseases that can be appeared from the use of this toxic substance.
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The Brief History of Pesticides Uses
The history of pesticide brings us to the past, before 2000 BC, mankind had used pesticide to protect their plants and crops. The first pesticide was in a form of sulfur which was spread on the agriculture soil in Samaria about 4500 years ago. Since the 15th century, a toxic substance had been used to exterminate the pests, such as; arsenic and mercury. In the 19th century, the pyrethrum from the chrysene and rotenone of the vegetables roots was beginning developed. Until the 1950s, pesticide with the arsenic basic substance was still dominant. Paul Herman Muller found DDT which is very effective against insect, but then replaced by the organophosphate and carbamate in 1975 in advance countries. Piretrin substance was dominant. Herbicide was developing and started to be used broadly in 1960s with triazin and other nitrogen base substances, such as; carbosilat and glifosat.
In the year of 1960s, it had been found that DDT can cause many birds fish eater cannot reproduce well. It began to be a serious problem for the life of wildlife. According to the Geneva Convention, the use of DDT now has been banned, but it is still in use in many developed countries against the malaria disease.
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Pesticides Importance in Farming
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), pesticide is defined as: any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying and controlling any pests, including vectors of human or animal disease, unwanted species of plants or animals, causing harm during or otherwise interfering with the production, processing, storage, or marketing of food, agricultural commodities, wood, and wood products or animal feed stuffs, or substances that may be administered to animals for the control of insects, arachnids, or other pests in or on their bodies. Indeed, here are the Chemicals Found in Pesticides:
1. Carbamate: it is kind of pesticide that affect the nervous system by disrupting an enzyme that regulates the neurotransmitter. However,the enzyme effects are usually reversible.
2. Organophosphate: most of the organophosphates are insecticide; they affect the nervous system by disrupting the enzyme that regulates a neurotransmitter.
3. Organochlorine Insectiside: they were commonly used earlier, but now many countries have been removed them from their market due to their health and environmental effects and their persistence (such as; DDT, Chlordane, and Toxaphene)
4. Pyrethroid: the pyrethroid pesticide were developed as a synthetic version of the naturally occurring pesticide pyrethrin, which is found in chrysanthemums. They have been modified to increase their stability in the environment.
5. Sulfonylurea Herbicides: the sulfonylurea herbicides have been commercialized for weed control such as amidosulfuron, azimsulfuron, besulfuron-methyl, chlorimuron—ethyl, ethoxysulfuron, flazasulfuron, flupysulfuron-methyl-sodium, halosulfuron-methyl, imazosulfuron, nicosulfuron, oxasulfuron, primisulfuron-methyl, pyrazosulfuron-ethyl, rimsulfuron, sulfometuron-methyl, sulfosulfuron, terbacil, bispyribac-sodium, cyclosulfamuron, and pyrithiobac-sodium.
6. Biopesticide: the biopesticide are certain types of pesticides derived from such natural materials as animals, plants, and certain minerals.
7. Organophosphate: It originated from H3PO4 (phosphate acid). This kind of pesticide is belong to insecticide, replaces the chlorinate group which has a characteristic such as;
- Effective against insect that resist to chlorinating hydrocarbon.
- It won’t contaminate the environment in a long period of time.
- It doesn’t have a longer effect to non-target organism
- More toxic and efficient to back bone animals, if it compares with organ chlorine
- It has a working system to slow down the enzyme cholinesterase function.
More than 50.000 organophosphates have been synthetic and tested its insecticide activity. But the usage of it is not more than 500 kinds at the moment. The organophosphates products are toxic if they are swallowed accidentally. The uses of them are to kill insect. Few of them are important and have been used for the medical use, such as fisostigmin, edroprium, and neostigmin. The first of organophosphate was synthetic in Germany during the World War II. That material was used for making the nerve gas. Organophosphates are the most toxic pesticide among the others and can be poisonous.
The pesticide can save the farmers, by destroying or controlling the pests which will give the impact to the crops. They can have many advantages from the use of pesticide. However, below is the list of primary benefits of it.
- Controlling pets and plant disease vectors
- Controlling human or livestock disease vectors and nuisance organisms
- Controlling organisms that harm other human activities and structure
The right use of pesticide can be the important factor in determining the pests’ control. Even though, the kind of the medicine is effective but if the use isn’t appropriate, it will be useless. The factors that must be considered in the use of pesticide are the wind condition, the air temperature, the humidity, and the rainfall.
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The Pesticide Chemical Substances
Pesticide is composed of chemical substances with the amount not less than 105 elements. But commonly, the chemical substances that are used for making pesticide are 21 elements, among them are carbon, nitrogen, phosphor, chlorine, and sulfur, whereas which come from metal or semi-metal are ferum, mercury, zinc, and arsenic.
- Pesticide Characteristic: Every pesticide has difference character. The most characteristic of pesticide which is normally found are ability, toxicity, structure formulas, empirical formulas, formulation, molecular weight, and the boiling point.
- Pesticide Name: The knowledge about pesticide is also covering about the structure and the names or is known by the name sequence.
- How does pesticide work: There are ways of pesticide work, such as
Contact pesticide, it means having the ability to kill after the target got hit directly.
Fumigant pesticide, it means having the ability to kill after the target got hit by the fume or gas.
Systemic pesticide, it can be located to every parts of the plant through the tissues. The pests will be dead if they inhale the plant liquid.
Gastric pesticide, it means the pests will be dead after eating the pesticide.
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Kinds and Examples of Pesticides
We can categorize the pesticides that are used around the world by their usage and function, they are;
- Algaecide originates from algae in Latin which means Sea Algae. It is useful against the algae.
- Antimicrobial is used for killing the micro bacterial.
- Avicide, comes from avis in Latin which means bird. It can kill or as a bird repellant substance and also as a bird population controller.
- Biopesticide are made of living things, originate from living things, and they exist in nature.
- Desiccants, are used for drying up living plant tissues.
- Disinfectants can control germs or microbes such as bacteria and viruses.
- Akaricide is also known by mitecide. It comes from the word akari “Greece”, means mite. It functions for exterminating mite.
- Insecticide, it is kind of pesticide that is used by the famer to kill insect such as grasshopper, caterpillar, bugs, etc
- Fungicide, it is kind of pesticide that is used by the farmer to extirpate and to prevent the growth of fungus.
- Bactericide is used by the farmer to exterminate bacteria and viruses on the plants.
- Rodenticide is used by the farmer against all rodents animals like rats or mouse
- Herbicide, it is kind of pesticide that is used by the farmer to exterminate all the unwanted plants around the farmer’s plants, such as bushes, grasses, and weeds.
- Molluscicides are created to control snails, slugs, clams, and other molluscs.
- Mothballs are insecticide used to exterminate fabric pests by fumigation in sealed containers.
- Repellents are designed to resist unwanted pests by taste or smell.
- Wood preservatives are used for making the wood resistant to insects, fungus, and others.
- Synergist, it can make certain pesticides more effective. But it must be followed by others pesticide. It cannot be effective when it’s used alone.
Before the pesticide can be used it must be formulated first between one chemical substance and others. The wind condition can be a good factor when the pesticide will be given to the plants, it must be quiet and stable one so that it will reduce the pesticide particle drift in the air.
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The temperature is important factor also. If the below temperature is more hot, the pesticide will move up, and neither is the high humidity will make it easier for the hydrolysis from the pesticide particle which will cause the toxic impact decreased. About the rainfall, it can wash the pesticide and make the function decreased.
The technical side that must be considered during the use of pesticide is the right dose which will be given to the target. If the dose is given too much, there will be inefficiency, beside it can damage the environment. If it is too short the pests won’t be dead, and it can make it more resistant against the pesticide. Thus, that’s Chemicals Found in Pesticides.
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