About

Introduction

Pesticide brand information is an essential component of pesticide risk assessment because the commercial product applied in practice is a formulated mixture rather than the active substance alone. Different brands containing the same active substance may vary in formulation type, concentration, coformulants, and application instructions, all of which can influence the product’s environmental fate, efficacy, toxicity, and potential for human and ecological exposure. Identifying the specific pesticide brand therefore enables a more accurate evaluation of exposure scenarios, regulatory compliance, and potential risks associated with its use.

At the same time, understanding the behaviour of the individual active substances within a formulation is fundamental to assessing how the pesticide interacts with the environment after application. Key properties such as persistence, degradation, mobility, bioavailability, and potential for bioaccumulation determine the likelihood of contamination of soil, water, air, and non-target organisms. Toxicity data helps to establish the potential implications of the exposure.

Together, information on both the commercial formulation and the active substance properties provides the scientific basis for a comprehensive pesticide risk assessment, supporting informed decision-making, identifying best practice and the implementation of appropriate risk management measures.

The University of Hertfordshire agricultural databases are a respected source of data for traditional agricultural pesticide active substances (PPDB), biopesticides (BPDB) and veterinary substances (VSDB). To compliment these, we can now offer the Pesticide Formulations Catalogue (PFC) which is a (developing) database of commercial pesticide products, providing information on the components within the product, formulation type and registration information. It is designed to complement the PPDB and BPDB linking products to active substances and their properties.

The data source

There are (very) roughly 15,000 to 20,000 mainstream commercial pesticide products currently, available globally. "Mainstream", in this context, refers to the products produced by the major Agrochemical companies that take the individual active ingredients and mix them with various solvents, wetters, carriers and other adjuvants into specific formulations (e.g. soluble concentrates, emulsifiable concentrates, wettable granules or multi-ingredient blends). However, once a mainstream formulation enters a country, local distributors rebrand it under thousands of different regional names to fit local marketing, languages, and specific regulatory packages. Therefore, there are probably hundreds of thousands of individual pesticide brand names globally. Consequently, compiling a database of global pesticide brands is a huge undertaking and unlikely to ever be considered fully comprehensive. Therefore, data for the PFC has been collated by trawling the websites and catalogues of the mainstream agrochemical companies, searching national product registration lists and using ‘snowballing’ techniques to identify related formulations (e.g. the various Roundup, Bravo or Amistar products). The database is not comprehensive and not complete but does provide insight into the types and scope of pesticide products and their formulations available globally.