Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012 (India).
The effect of different emulsifiers, viz., sandovit, idet 10, nikavon, quat 2C, teepol, adinol T-77, triton x-1oo, tween-80, blancol, and quat MBA on the toxicity of malathion emulsion along with its proprietary formulation was studied against the adults of Tribolium castaneum Hbst. The maximum improvement in biological efficacy of malathion emulsion was due to sandovit and idet 10, being 3.28 and 2.11 times respectively as compared to commercial malathion emulsion concentrate. On the other hand, malathion emulsions formulated with tween-80, blancol, and quat MBA were respectively 0.61, 0.44 and 0.40 times less effective vis-a-vis commercial malathion emulsion. Thus, the toxicity of active ingredient malathion could be appreciably increased by proper selection of other ingredients in the emulsion formulation.
