SCALABLE NANOCARRIERS FOR EFFICIENT FOLIAR DELIVERY OF AGROCHEMICALS TO PLANTS

Foliar delivery of bioactive agents to plants is a highly desirable but historically inefficient method of (1) promoting agrochemical internalization or (2) trafficking agrochemicals to specific locations in tissue. Most agrochemicals, when applied foliarly in the form of an aqueous dispersion, are poorly internalized into leaves and do not transit efficiently to other organs, limiting their ability to affect biological activity in the target organism. Water-soluble agents are unable to penetrate the waxy cuticular layer on leaves, and water-insoluble agents are usually dispersed in suspensions with macroscopic particulates, which are too large for internalization by direct penetration or stomatal flooding.The increasing number and variety of fungal, bacterial, viral, and environmental stressors that negatively affect plant health necessitates the development of a cost-effective and scalable delivery system capable of translocating systemically an agrochemical from the exterior of a leaf to the vasculature, roots, other leaves, or combinations of these. In addition to transporting materials to target locations in plants, such a delivery system would potentially reduce the overall quantity of bioactive agents required to have a biological effect on the plant. We here propose developing organic nanocarriers containing representative agrochemicals from three classes - antibiotic, hormone, and pesticide (streptomycin, gibberellic acid, and prochloraz, respectively, or alternatives) - and evaluating their ability to systemically deliver their payload to tomato following foliar administration