Insecticides comprise about 18% of the total pesticides marketed in Malaysia in which more than 55% of the insecticides are in the form of solvent-based formulations or emulsifiable concentrates (EC) (MCPA, 2002). In recent trend, the end-users/operators in agriculture sectors increasingly require safer and more convenient pesticide formulations such as water-based emulsion (EW) instead of EC-insecticide formulations respectively (Abdullah and Mohtar, 1993; Tadros, 1995; Ismail et al., 1998). EW formulations offer many advantages over the conventional solvent-based insecticides (EC) (Tadros, 1995; Ismail et al., 1998; Ismail, 2000; Mulqueen, 2003):

• EW is an aqueous-based formulation, therefore, they produce less medical problems (e.g., skin and eyes irritation) to the operators.

• They are also less phytotoxic to plants.

• EW-insecticide formulations allow adding water-soluble adjuvants to the formulations.

• The formulations are less expensive to produce since mainly water is used instead of oil.

Main Research: En. Ismail Ab. Rahman