Agroscience Services

Tentamus Agro­sciences Group labo­ra­to­ries are recog­nized part­ners of the world’s leading agro­chem­ical compa­nies and have the most advanced analyt­ical equip­ment and facil­i­ties to meet our customers’ needs indi­vid­u­ally and efficiently.

Our agro­science labo­ra­to­ries are inspected and accred­ited by EPA, GLP and GEP compli­ance agen­cies in the US, Europe, Greater China and Israel.

We perform our studies for regu­la­tory require­ments of US, Euro­pean agen­cies, JMAFF, OPPTS, PMRA, WHO/FAO and follow a variety of inter­na­tional guidelines.

Plant and Animal Metab­o­lism Studies

The use of crop protec­tion prod­ucts in agri­cul­ture can result in residues remaining in the corre­sponding plant and animal foods. Using plant and animal metab­o­lism studies, our labo­ra­to­ries inves­ti­gate the uptake and metab­o­lism of agro­chem­i­cals in farm animals and plants.State-of-the-art analyt­ical methods and 14C labeling enable Tentamus Agro­sciences labo­ra­to­ries to iden­tify metabolites.

Envi­ron­mental Fate & Degradation

Because they are anthro­pogenic substances, the fate of agro­chem­i­cals in the envi­ron­ment begins with their appli­ca­tion to agri­cul­tural fields. The fate of substances in the envi­ron­ment is influ­enced by chem­ical, phys­ical, biolog­ical, and hydrom­e­te­o­ro­log­ical processes in soil, water, and air.

Incom­plete degra­da­tion of pesti­cides can lead to the forma­tion of toxic trans­for­ma­tion prod­ucts (TPs). Envi­ron­mental Fate (eFate) studies provide an oppor­tu­nity to inves­ti­gate the impact of agro­chem­i­cals on the envi­ron­ment (plants, water, soil, etc.).

Tentamus Group’s special­ized labo­ra­to­ries can perform eFate studies for you including hydrol­ysis, field dissi­pa­tion, mobility, photodegra­da­tion as well as biodegra­da­tion of various matrices and addi­tion­ally offer studies outside the guidelines.

Char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and analysis of Residues (labo­ra­tory, field studies)

Before crop protec­tion prod­ucts are regis­tered and approved for the market, they require thor­ough testing and eval­u­a­tion by appro­priate accred­ited labo­ra­to­ries and, ulti­mately, regu­la­tory agen­cies. In order to ensure the safety of plant food and feed, no residues or only residues in spec­i­fied maximum levels may be detected.

With the help of various residue and field studies, the labo­ra­to­ries of the Tentamus Group can advise you on the level of possible residues of your crop protec­tion prod­ucts in the food and feed and develop appro­priate solu­tions together with you.

Humidome Studies

To deter­mine the volatility of an active ingre­dient in a partic­ular formu­la­tion, our labo­ra­to­ries can perform humidome studies in a controlled test envi­ron­ment (gener­ally within 24-hours). These can be performed both qual­i­ta­tively and quan­ti­ta­tively and offer tremen­dous cost and time savings compared to expen­sive flux studies. They are repeat­able and can test multiple formu­la­tions in a short period of time very effi­ciently to iden­tify the ideal formulation.

In controlled exper­i­mental envi­ron­ments provided by humidomes, the effect of temper­a­ture, rela­tive humidity, spray solu­tion pH, and a variety of tank mix part­ners on dicamba volatiliza­tion can be studied. As weed resis­tance to Round-UP increases world­wide, agro­chem­ical compa­nies have begun to incor­po­rate dicamba into their formu­la­tions to prevent further weed resis­tance devel­op­ment. As dicamba is volatile by nature, it has created new chal­lenges for growers who must deal with poten­tial damage to neigh­boring crops. Dicamba manu­fac­turers have been forced to develop new formu­la­tions in which the volatility of dicamba is minimized.

Agri­cul­ture

Crop protec­tion prod­ucts, such as pesti­cides, herbi­cides or fungi­cides are mainly used in agri­cul­ture. The aim is to protect both neigh­boring natural habi­tats (soils, plants, water bodies) and the treated fields them­selves. To ensure that agri­cul­tural prod­ucts work only as intended – that is, to promote the growth of healthy plants and keep pests and weeds at bay – the Tentamus agro­science labo­ra­to­ries offer the following services to farms:

• Soil Dissi­pa­tion & Crop Rota­tion Studies
• Envi­ron­mental Fate – Biodegra­da­tion of products
• Risk studies for trans­port & storage
• Stability studies
• Residue studies & field trials
• Storage stability of residues
• Effi­cacy & plant protec­tion studies
• Variety eval­u­a­tion & breeding
• Spoilage testing

Animal breeding and live­stock manage­ment are also part of agri­cul­ture. To track animal meta­bolic processes and ensure animal health, our labo­ra­to­ries can also offer you the following analyt­ical services:

• ¹⁴C‑licensed & AAALAC-accred­ited animal facility for in-life phase
• Metabo­lite identification
• Capil­lary elec­trophoresis MS for charged & polar metabolites
• Feeding studies in our animal facility
• Residue content studies: in-life coor­di­na­tion, in-house analytics

Food Produc­tion Companies

The use of crop protec­tion prod­ucts not only affects fields and the envi­ron­ment, but also has an impact on the food that emerges from agri­cul­ture. The Tentamus Group there­fore places partic­ular emphasis on taking a holistic view of food produc­tion and offers food manu­fac­turers a valu­able total package. In our labo­ra­to­ries, we not only examine the crop protec­tion prod­ucts as such, but also the food on its way from the field to the plate.

Seed/​Plant Supplier

Planting high-quality seed is the foun­da­tion for a high-yielding crop. To ensure this, our labo­ra­to­ries offer a range of labo­ra­tory analyses and studies.

Our services for seed and crop suppliers include:

• Limited & open field rota­tion crops
• Residue studies & field trials
• Major and minor plant metab­o­lism studies
• Limited accu­mu­la­tion studies on rota­tion crops
• Radio vali­da­tion
• Metab­o­lism study with non-radi­o­la­beled new active ingredients

In addi­tion, ¹⁴C licensed green­houses & outdoor facil­i­ties are avail­able to our laboratories.

Only approved crop protec­tion prod­ucts may be placed on the market and used. Both approval and use are governed by EU legis­la­tion. In order to use a partic­ular active ingre­dient, it must also be approved by the Euro­pean Commission.

In Germany, the Federal Office of Consumer Protec­tion and Food Safety (BVL) handles the approval of a crop protec­tion product. In the U.S., the approval of pesti­cides and crop protec­tion prod­ucts is regu­lated by the Federal Insec­ti­cide, Fungi­cide, and Roden­ti­cide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

Tentamus Group’s agro­science labo­ra­to­ries, through their expe­ri­enced and qual­i­fied team, have the regu­la­tory and scien­tific exper­tise to assist you with the marketing of your pesti­cide prod­ucts. In addi­tion to our consulting services, we offer the following services:

• Marketability testing
• Phys­ical and chem­ical characterization
• Risk studies for trans­port and storage
• Stability studies
• Residue studies for the fate of residues in soil, water, food and feed
• Envi­ron­mental Fate
• Plant and animal metab­o­lism studies
• Method devel­op­ment and vali­da­tion (single & multi-residue analyt­ical methods, enforce­ment methods, radio-validation)
• 5‑batch analyses
• Active substance analyses, analyses for formu­lated products
• Certi­fi­ca­tion of analyses
• Screening: purity & impu­rity profile of the active substance

The approval of a crop protec­tion product is limited (usually 10 years). In order for the product to continue to be used and remain on the market, it must be reassessed and eval­u­ated. Further­more, the EU Commis­sion can also initiate unsched­uled inspec­tions if there is a corre­sponding reason.

With Tentamus Agro­sciences as your partner you get quality and exper­tise world­wide from one source. Your advan­tages are clear – with Tentamus Agro­sciences you get:

• A recog­nized partner of top agro­chem­ical companies
• A team with more than 20 years of experience
• State-of-the-art analyt­ical equipment
• Solu­tions indi­vid­u­ally tailored to your products
• The possi­bility of method devel­op­ment and validation
• Studies & analytics from a single source
• Peer review process for quality manage­ment and quality assurance

The labo­ra­to­ries of Tentamus Group in the field of agro­sciences have a wide range of modern analyt­ical equip­ment at their disposal:

• C with MS, MS/MS, Q‑TOF, DAD, UV, ELSD and fluo­ri­metric detectors
• Ion chro­mato­graph with conduc­to­metric detector
• GC equipped with MS, MS/MS, ECD, NPD and FID detec­tors and head­space autosampler
• ICP-OES for the analysis of metals
• Complete equip­ment for micro­bi­o­log­ical analysis
• PCR, Real-Time qPC and PCR-Ther­mo­cy­cler – Elec­trophoresis
• ELISA
• Southern Blot Analysis (P32) and Western Blot Analysis

Our labo­ra­to­ries are also fully equipped for chem­ical and phys­ical char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of tech­nical and formu­lated products.

The following labo­ra­to­ries of the Tentamus Group offer Agro­sciences Services: