N-acyl sarcosinate: a safe, effective and eco-friendly adjuvant for glyphosate

N-acyl sarcosinates have a long history of safe use in personal care produc ts such as shampoo and toothpaste. Glyphosate formulations containing sarco sinate as the sole adjuvant were shown to exhibit excellent efficacy at low surfactant concentration and to reduce the surface tension of the system t o below 25 mN m(-1), at use concentration. Aquatic toxicity studies have sh own that these systems are more than an order of magnitude less toxic to ra inbow trout than conventional glyphosate systems. An in-vitro corneal toxic ity study shows that the sarcosinate based glyphosate systems exhibit no to xicity to bullock corneal tissue while conventional formulations cause seve re damage under the same conditions. The results of field studies, at eleva ted application rates, on glyphosate tolerant corn shows that conventional glyphosate formulations can cause severe stunting and deformation of the pl ants while the sarcosinate based formulations cause no significant damage.