Nitrogen use efficiency of urea fertilizer is very low for various crops and very large proportions of the fertilizer nitrogen are lost from the crop field through ammonium volatilization, nitrification and de-nitrification, and nitrate leaching. Therefore, to reduce nitrogen losses and the adverse effect of nitrogenous fertilizer on the environment a slow release of highly efficient polyurea MICROCAPSULE nitrogenous fertilizer is developed for prolonging release of nitrogen in soil. In this context, neem seed oil encapsulated polyurea MICROCAPSULE is developed by interfacial polymerization approach. Polyurea MICROCAPSULE contains 68. 98% carbon, 11. 31% hydrogen and 5. 95% nitrogen. The mean particle size of the synthesized polyurea MICROCAPSULE was 2. 137 µ, m. The synthesized 0. 5 G, 0. 0 G dendrimer and polyurea MICROCAPSULE were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Disappearance and appearance of peak at 2841. 76 cm−, 1 and 1745. 94 cm−, 1 confirmed the synthesis of 0. 0 G PAMAM and amide bond formation in polyurea MICROCAPSULE, respectively. The stability of polyurea MICROCAPSULE was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis. Results of incubation study showed that sustained release of NH4+–, N and NO3−, –, N from polyurea MICROCAPSULE under field capacity as well as under submerged condition. Hence, polyurea MICROCAPSULE could be a suitable option in as a source of nitrogen for crops under field condition.

Introduction The effectiveness of herbicides is influenced not only by the active ingredients and their toxicity but also by the formulation of the herbicide. Conventional herbicide formulations include wettable powder and emulsifiable concentrate (EC). EC formulations are prepared by mixing the active ingredient with solvents and surfactants. However, these formulations can have negative phytotoxic effects due to hazardous solvents and can be unsafe for operators during application. As an alternative to EC formulations, capsule suspension (CS) formulation has been considered. EPTC is a thiocarbamate herbicide used to control the growth of germinating annual weeds, including broadleaves, grasses, and sedges, in crops such as tobacco in Iran. EPTC acts by inhibiting cuticle formation during the early stages of seedling growth. It is available in formulated products such as emulsifiable concentrate (EC) liquids containing up to 87.8% active ingredient and granular (G) formulations containing up to 25% active ingredient. However, there have been few studies on the production of MICROCAPSULE formulations of this herbicide. This experiment aimed to evaluate the weed control effectiveness of EPTC MICROCAPSULE formulation, which was synthesized for the first time in Iran. Additionally, the study examined the effect of the herbicide extender, Ammonium thiosulfate, at different doses and application methods. Materials and Methods To investigate the effectiveness of different herbicide formulations and application methods, a three-way factorial experiment was conducted in Tirtash Research and Education Center in Mazandaran province, Iran, during the 2014 growing season. The experiment followed a randomized complete design (CRD) with three replications. The factors studied in the experiment were: Herbicide formulation: Emulsifiable concentrate formulation (Eradicane® EC 82%) Emulsifiable concentrate formulation with Ammonium thiosulfate MICROCAPSULE formulation Herbicide dose: 50% of the recommended active ingredient (2.46 kg a.i. ha-1) 75% of the recommended active ingredient (3.69 kg a.i. ha-1) 100% of the recommended active ingredient (4.92 kg a.i. ha-1) Herbicide application method: Soil-incorporated pre-planting Pre-planting A control plot with no herbicide application was also included. Throughout the growing season, weed density, weed dry weight, and tobacco yield were measured. The relative weed control compared to the control treatment was used to evaluate the efficiency of the different treatments. The collected data was subjected to analysis of variance using Minitab (Version 18), and mean comparisons were performed using the honestly significant difference (HSD) test at a significance level of 0.05. Results and Discussion Based on the relative frequency of weeds, Setaria viridis L. and Amaranthus retroflexus L. were dominant species. The experimental results show the effects of formulation type, application dose and method of application on weed density and weed dry weight and tobacco yield were statistically significant difference. The MICROCAPSULE formulation increased weed control efficiency and tobacco yield significantly compared to EC formulation and the highest weed control performance and tobacco yield belong to the soil incorporated of MICROCAPSULE formulation with recommended dose. Conclusions The results indicated that the utilization of a MICROCAPSULE formulation allows for a 25% reduction in the application dose of the EPTC herbicide, without compromising weed control or tobacco yield. Consequently, there were no significant differences observed between applying 75% of the recommended dose using the MICROCAPSULE formulation and applying 100% of the recommended dose using the EC formulation, with or without the extender. Based on these findings, it is crucial to promptly mix the herbicide with the soil immediately after spraying in order to maintain the efficiency of EPTC. Furthermore, it was discovered that employing two-thirds of the recommended dose of the MICROCAPSULE formulation yields the same level of effectiveness as the recommended dose of other formulations. Additionally, incorporating the EPTC herbicide with soil in all formulations enhanced weed control efficacy. In contrast to previous research suggesting the positive impact of extender adjuvants such as ammonium thiosulfate on herbicide efficiency, this study did not observe similar effects. This discrepancy may be attributed to the varying soil and climatic conditions at the test site.

Reduce pesticides usage and improve efficiency of them can be achieved by the technology of controlled release formulations. This experiment conducted to investigate the efficiency of synthesized MICROCAPSULE formulation of trifluralin in Tirtash Research and Education Center (located in Mazandaran province, the north of Iran) during the 2014 growing season. The experiment design was three-way factorial arrangement on a CRD with three replications. The treatments consisted of the MICROCAPSULE and emulsifiable concentrate (Treflan® 48%) formulation in different doses, 50, 75 and 100 percent of recommended dose (0. 6, 0. 9 and 1. 2 kg a. i. /ha) and application methods, soil-incorporated pre-planting and pre-planting. Weeding and weed infest were prepared as control plots. Density and dry weight of weed at 40 and 60 days after tobacco transplanting and tobacco yield were measured during the growth season. Based on the relative abundance of weeds, Setaria viridis L. and Amaranthus retroflexus L. were dominant species. The experimental results show there were significant difference between formulation type, dose and method of application on density and dry weight of weed and tobacco yield. The effectiveness of MC formulation in each applied dose were higher than EC formulation. The 50% recommended dose of MC formulation had the same weed control effectiveness as 75% recommended dose of the EC formulation. The green foxtail and redroot pigweed control were about 72 and 69% in 50% recommended dose of MC formulation and about 79 and 65% in 75% recommended dose of EC formulation, respectively. Also 50% of MC formulation could increase yield as same as the 100% of EC formulation, 4. 26 and 4. 30 ton. ha-1, respectively. Soil incorporation of trifluralin was very necessary to achieve best efficiency.

Background and objective: Thymus vulgaris is one of the most well-known medicinal plants which its essential oil contains various active ingredients such as thymol and carvacrol with antioxidant, antibacterial, and antifungal activities. This essential oil is very sensitive and loses its properties against different factors. Microencapsulation process is performed for protecting volatile and sensitive compounds to chemical reactions. Modeling of this process can be effective in assessing and predicting conditions affecting on qualitative properties of the product. The purposes of this study are optimization of the production conditions of Thymus vulgaris essential oil microencapsulation and performance comparison of response surface and artificial neural network methods.Materials and methods: In this study, oil in water emulsions, consisting of 5% (weight/weight) of thyme essential oil in an aqueous suspension containing wall materials (10, 33.13, 20, 26.66 and 30%), with different protein (sodium caseinate) to polysaccharide (modified starch and maltodextrin) ratios (0, 66.6, 20, 33.33 and 40%), were prepared by the help of ultrasonic waves (30, 45, 75, 105 and 120 seconds) -. MICROCAPSULEs were prepared from prepared emulsions using freeze-drying and the effect of the above factors on the changes in quality characteristics of the capsules, including the microencapsulation efficiency according to the amount of microencapsulated essential oil, the amount of phenolic compounds, and preserved antioxidants were investigated.Results: The results of process modeling showed that in both methods, qualitative properties of MICROCAPSULEs were increased with increasing wall concentration, protein-to-polysaccharide , ratio, and ultrasonic duration. Interaction between protein to polysaccharide ratio and ultrasonic time also improved the preservation of total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of Thymus vulgaris essential oil in moderate levels of variables. 28% of wall concentration, 16% protein to polysaccharide ratio, 111 seconds of ultrasonic time and 29% of wall concentration, 18% of protein to polysaccharide ratio and 87 seconds of ultrasonic time were proposed as optimum points of neural network and response surface method, respectively. Among the optimized samples, the optimum sample obtained from the artificial neural network model showed higher total phenolic content and higher microencapsulation efficiency (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the independent variables were effective in the microencapsulation process And the protein to polysaccharide ratio had the greatest effect on it. Also, neural network with optimal topology was very effective than response surface methodology in predicting the qualitative characteristics of microencapsulation of Thymus vulgaris essential oil due to its unique ability in processing information and modeling complex systems.