The effect of surfactant type on the physico-chemical properties of hexaconazole/dazomet-micelle nanodelivery system and its biofungicidal activity against Ganoderma boninense

Abstract

This work describes the effect of surfactant types; anionic (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate and sodium dodecyl sulfate) and non-ionic (Tween 80) on their physico-chemical properties for the development of fungicide-based agronanochemicals, as a potential candidate in managing basal stem rot disease in oil palm. We have designed and prepared nanodelivery systems based on micelle using dual fungicides; hexaconazole and dazomet as the guests and surfactants as the host, and investigated their antifungal potency towards pathogenic fungi, Ganoderma boninense. The surfactant concentration was found to have a great impact on the nano-sized of the resulting micelle nanodelivery systems. This study found that the antifungal inhibitory activities were mainly controlled by the surfactant charge than the micelles’ size. It was also found that the anionic surfactant-based systems showed greater inhibitory activities on Ganoderma pathogen with the minimum EC50 value of 14 ppb compared to 19 ppb for the non-ionic surfactants-based system, although their size is 113 nm which is doubled compared to 52 nm for the non-ionic-based systems. All the nanoformulations were found to be able to suppress the Ganoderma pathogen, showing they have a great potential to be used as the next generation of agronanofungicide with superior qualities.