Introduction
Oils are used as components of agrochemicals for the treatment of beetroot, maize and wheat as they increase the
foliar penetration of the pesticides. For their application, oils have to be dispersed in water to form an emulsion that
has to be stable for few hours (time of the treatment). The dispersion in water has to be spontaneous. In order to
achieve that, the oils are pre-formulated and can be found in two formats:
• Emulsifying emulsion (a surfactant solution in oil)
• Concentrated emulsion (a O/W emulsion at 70 to 80% oil).
The company ARD has formulated a concentrated emulsion with methyl ester of canola seed as oil and a natural
surfactant based on sugar as emulsifier. The main constraints of the formulation are the stability of the concentrated
emulsion in storage and its ease of use (fluidity, dilution) as well as the relative stability of the diluted emulsion for
the use in the field. A homogeneous emulsion has to form spontaneously without bringing any external energy and
has to be stable during application.
