Enilconazole (synonyms imazalil, chloramizole) is a

fungicide Fungicides are biocidal chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill parasitic fungi or their spores. A fungistatic inhibits their growth. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality, ...

widely used in agriculture, particularly in the growing of

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...

fruits. Trade names include Freshgard, Fungaflor, and Nuzone. Enilconazole is also used in

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

as a

topical A topical medication is a medication that is applied to a particular place on or in the body. Most often topical medication means application to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes to treat ailments via a large range of classes ...

antimycotic An antifungal medication, also known as an antimycotic medication, is a pharmaceutical fungicide or fungistatic used to treat and prevent mycosis such as athlete's foot, ringworm, candidiasis (thrush), serious systemic infections such as crypt ...

History

In 1983, enilconazole was first introduced by

Janssen Pharmaceutica Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium, and wholly-owned by Johnson & Johnson. It was founded in 1953 by Paul Janssen. In 1961, Janssen Pharmaceuticals was purchased by New Jersey-based American c ...

and it has since consistently been registered as an antifungal postharvest agent. Shortly after its introduction, enilconazole was used for seed treatment in 1984 and later used in chicken hatcheries in 1990. Like any fungicide, it was used to protect crops from becoming diseased and unable to yield a profitable harvest. Today, it continues to be utilized as an agricultural aid for its contribution to maintaining crop integrity and production output.

Use on crops

Enilconazole is found on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, but it is primarily used on tubers for storage. Common fungi that are attracted to tubers are ''

Fusarium ''Fusarium'' is a large genus of filamentous fungi, part of a group often referred to as hyphomycetes, widely distributed in soil and associated with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil mi ...

'' spp, ''

Phoma ''Phoma'' is a genus of common coelomycetous soil fungi. It contains many plant pathogenic species. Description Spores are colorless and unicellular. The pycnidia are black and depressed in the tissues of the host. ''Phoma'' is arbitrarily lim ...

'' spp, and ''

Helminthosporium solani ''Silver scurf'' is a plant disease that is caused by the plant pathogen ''Helminthosporium solani.'' Silver scurf is a blemish disease, meaning the effect it has on tubers is mostly cosmetic and affects "fresh market, processing and seed tuber ...

'' which depreciate the crop quality. In 1984, when enilconazole was initially used for seed treatment, barley was a main target to mitigate crop loss due to disease. In addition, the antifungal agent is commonly used on citrus fruits. In the EU its use as a fungicide is permitted within some limits and imported fruits may contain limited amounts.

Hazards

In 1999, based on studies in rodents, enilconazole was identified as "likely to be

carcinogen A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

ic in humans" under The Environmental Protection Agency's Draft Guidelines for Carcinogenic Assessment. However, because pesticide residues are well below the concentrations associated with risk, the lifetime

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

risk estimate associated with citrus fruit contamination was valued as insignificant. The EPA has established an equivalent toxicity level for human exposure at 6.1 x 10⁻² mg/kg/day. This level placed it in Category I, II, and IV for oral, dermal, and inhalation toxicity. Category I is classified as highly irritating to the eyes, but not to the skin. As for oral toxicity, when the fungicide is transferred via food into the body, it must be metabolized before it can do any damage. Under California's

Proposition 65 Proposition 65 (formally titled The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, and also referred to as Prop 65) is a California law passed by direct voter initiative in 1986 by a 63%–37% vote. Its goals are to protect drinking water s ...

, enilconazole is listed as "known to the State to cause cancer".Proposition 65
, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment The EPA determined there is no substantial risk of enilconazole toxicity through food and water exposure. Enilconazole has a very minute degree of mobility, so its level of drinking water contamination is quite low. The estimated environmental concentration (EEC) found the levels to be 0.072 ppb for surface water, which is much less than the 500 ppb comparison level for drinking water.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Imazalil page
at EnvironmentalChemistry.com
Diagram showing metabolism of enilconazole

Allyl compounds Aromatase inhibitors Chloroarenes Ethers Fungicides Imidazole antifungals Lanosterol 14α-demethylase inhibitors Veterinary drugs