Controlled Release of Pheromones
A pheromone (from Greek φέρω phero "to bear" + hormone from Greek ὁρμή - "impetus") is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual.= There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates and plants communicate by using pheromones. (Wikipedia, Pheromones, 3/25/2011)
Plants tend to attract diseases quite similar to human beings. Pesticides tend to be used to control such diseases. An alternative route, at least as far as damages from insects is concerned, envisions the application of pheromones. These cause a disorientation of male insects so that they are no longer able to locate the females, which finally gives rise to suppression of reproduction. The approach considered in this paper is based on the release of pheromones from polymer carriers, in particular, from nanofibers webs as obtained by electrospinning. These may be distributed across the field quite similar to spider webs. The pheromones are required to be incorporated in sufficiently high concentrations in the nanofibers via electrospinning and to be released from the nanofibers for a sufficiently long time expanding over several weeks to months. [Hellmann, Greiner and Wendorff,[Polymers for Advanced Technologies 22 #4 407-413(2011)]
Recent Journal Articles
Design of pheromone releasing nanofibers for plant protection
(407–413) Polymers for Advanced Technologies 22 #4 (2011)
Hellmann, Greiner and Wendorff of Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, developed polyamide 6 and cellulose acetate as polymer carriers for pheromones. Studies reveal that fluid pheromones can, in fact, be incorporated in the nanofibers to more than 33 wt%. They may undergo a nanoscalar phase separation within the fibers during electrospinning. Furthermore, thermogravimetric studies revealed via in vitro release studies that the pheromones are released from the nanofibers in a nearly linear fashion over a period covering many weeks. (RDC 3/25/2011)