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: