Influence of Long Term Application of Butachlor on its Dissipation and Harvest Residues in Soil and Rice.

The study delineates the effect of repeated application of butachlor to rice crop from 1997 onwards. Additionally, in 2014 and 2015, dissipation kinetics of butachlor in soil was studied under field and laboratory conditions. The average recovery of butachlor for soil, rice grain and rice straw ranged between 80.3%-93.2% and 82.8%-96.5% with quantification limit of 0.01 and 0.003 µg g-1 for HPLC and GC-MS/MS, respectively. The dissipation of butachlor followed first order kinetics and half-life under long term field trials in rice soil varied from 15.2 to 19.29 days and 25.94 to 29.79 days under field and laboratory conditions, respectively. The residue of butachlor in soil, rice grain and straw samples at harvest over the years was below the quantification limit and no quantifiable amount of metabolites were present in soil at harvest suggestive of its safe application.

Mutagenicity of systemic organophosphate pesticides metasystox and rogor.

Mutagenicity of metasystox and rogor could not be detected on the basis of tests employing Ames Salmonella/microsome assay even in the presence of wheat seedling or rat liver microsomal activation systems.

Carbaryl-A selective genotoxicant.

Mutagenic effects of carbaryl, a contact insecticide with slight systemic properties, have been investigated employing histidine reversion assay in Salmonella typhimurium strains and in vivo chromosomal aberrations in root meristems of Allium cepa. A detailed investigation revealed that carbaryl did not enhance significantly the frequency of histidine revertants in any of the strains of Salmonella i.e. frameshift mutagen tester (TA98), base pair substitution tester strain (TA1535) and ochre mutant strain (TA102). The supplementation with S9 mix did not have any appreciable effect. S14 prepared from wheat seedlings also did not enhance the reversion frequency significantly. However, carbaryl induced both clastogenic and physiological types of chromosomal aberration. The spectrum of chromosomal aberrations included c-mitosis, stickiness, vagrant chromosomes, polyploidy multi-polarity, delayed anaphases, end to end joining of chromosomes, chromosome breaks, ring chromosomes and anaphase bridges. The frequency of chromosomal aberrations was reduced by transferring the carbaryl treated bulbs to distilled water for 24 and 48 h. Similarly, recovery in the mitotic index was noticed by such transfer. The differences between the two assays may be attributed to differences in the metabolism of the test organisms.