Abstract
The management of parasites, insect pests and vectors requests development of novel, effective and eco-friendly tools. The development of resistance towards many drugs and pesticides pushed scientists to look for novel bioactive compounds endowed with multiple modes of action, and with no risk to human health and environment. Several natural products are used as alternative/complementary approaches to manage parasites, insect pests and vectors due to their high efficacy and often limited non-target toxicity. Their encapsulation into nanosystems helps overcome some hurdles related to their physicochemical properties, for instance limited stability and handling, enhancing the overall efficacy. Among different nanosystems, micro- and nanoemulsions are easy-to-use systems in terms of preparation and industrial scale-up. Different reports support their efficacy against parasites of medical importance, including Leishmania, Plasmodium and Trypanosoma as well as agricultural and stored product insect pests and vectors of human diseases, such as Aedes and Culex mosquitoes. Overall, micro- and nanoemulsions are valid options for developing promising eco-friendly tools in pest and vector management, pending proper field validation. Future research on the improvement of technical aspects as well as chronic toxicity experiments on non-target species is needed.
Highlights
Micro- and nanoemulsions are easy-to-use systems in terms of preparation and industrial scale-up. Different reports support their efficacy against parasites of medical importance, including Leishmania, Plasmodium and Trypanosoma as well as agricultural and stored product insect pests and vectors of human diseases, such as Aedes and Culex mosquitoes
Their safety profile is guaranteed by the fact that most of EOs have been recognised as Generally Recognised As Safe (GRAS) substances by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States [67]
Mosquitoes are the vectors of pathogens and parasites of medical and veterinary importance leading to the spread of diseases such as malaria, filariasis, dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and Zika virus, just to cite the most important, some of them are lethal, especially in developing countries [116]
Summary
Pharmaceutical, food and agricultural research has focused the attention on the development of delivery systems able to encapsulate, protect and deliver lots of different compounds. The formation of MEs is strictly dependent on the sensitive SOR and, to determine the optimal one, is used to build a pseudoternary phase diagram This kind of system, needs a very low interfacial tension and a favourable packaging of surfactant molecules, given by the relative interaction between their hydrophobic tails and the oil phase. NEs, instead, will remain in a metastable state that will guarantee the stability of the systems if the energy barrier between the two different energy states remains high enough to avoid the reversion of the system and the phase separation This occurs because of such instability phenomena such as coalescence, flocculation and Ostwald ripening, which, bringing growth of droplets, lead to creaming. It influences the energy balance of the system as well
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