Towards sustainable pest management of broad scope: sol-gel microencapsulation of Origanum vulgare essential oil

Showing broad scope pesticidal properties, the Origanum vulgare essential oil is highly volatile, limiting effective agricultural applications. Aiming to develop new environmentally friendly and effective biopesticide based on O. vulgare essential oil we carried out its template-assisted sol-gel microencapsulation within silica microcapsules. The method affords mesoporous SiO2 spherical particles about 430 nm in size with uniform size distribution (polydispersion index of 0.184) having encapsulation efficiency up to 13.7 wt%, and large positive zeta potential of 22.8 mV. Dubbed herein “SiliOregan”, this new class of sol-gel materials is promising towards the development of solid biopesticides formulated in water for pest management against fungi, insects, bacteria, nematodes, and mites. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)