Figure 6.

Effect on maize plants of pre-emergence treatment with the formulations. Maize seeds were germinated in a soil:vermiculite mixture sprayed with 3.1 mL of water, empty PCL nanocapsules (NC), commercial atrazine (ATZ), or PCL nanocapsules containing atrazine (NC+ATZ). The formulations contained atrazine at 1 mg mL⁻¹, resulting in a dosage of 2000 g ha⁻¹. Shoot dry weight (A), maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (B), net photosynthesis (C), and leaf lipid peroxidation (D) were evaluated 3 weeks after emergence of the plants. Equal “a” letters indicated that no significant differences among the treatments were detected in One-Way ANOVA test (A: P = 0.42; B: P = 0.11; C: P = 0.19; D: P = 0.73). Data are shown as means ± SE (A: n = 16; B: n = 5; C: n = 9; D: n = 5).