Testing system for chemical substances or substance mixtures

Chemistry: analytical and immunological testing – Automated chemical analysis – With aspirator of claimed structure

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C436S174000, C436S180000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06277642

ABSTRACT:

The invention relates to a testing system for chemical substances or substance mixtures and to a method of testing chemical substances or substance mixtures for their activity, especially for testing potential plant protection compositions, such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and the like.
The testing of chemical substances or substance mixtures (for the sake of simplicity reference is made always to one substance hereinafter) for their activity, especially the testing of potential plant protection compositions (pesticides), such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, nematicides, acaricides and the like, is nowadays generally carried out by bringing plants or parts of plants, for example sections of leaves, into contact with the substance to be tested. Where the aim of the test is merely to discover whether or not the substance as such is able to cause damage to the leaf section (for example in the case of a herbicide) there is no need for the leaf section to be infested with a pest, a fungus or the like; otherwise the leaf section needs also to be infested with the appropriate pest, fungus or the like (for example when the substance is a fungicide or insecticide). After some time the leaf section is examined for the activity of the substance applied.
As a rule, the substance to be tested is applied to the leaf section manually using a pipette or in the case of entire plants is generally sprayed on. Since the number of substances which it is desirable to test for activity is very large and is steadily and rapidly increasing, the manual application of the individual substances using a pipette, although possible in principle, has only a limited degree of suitability because it is very complicated and timeconsuming, so that the steadily increasing number of substances which it is desirable to test for activity cannot be managed in this way in practice and requires the constant employment of qualified personnel. Moreover, it is also difficult to wet the test specimen (e.g. leaf sections, comminuted parts of plants, seeds or entire plants) evenly with the substance to be tested, so that it is hard to obtain reliable information about the activity of a substance. If a number of test specimens, arranged one next to the other, are sprayed with different substances there is also a risk that a neighbouring test specimen will become contaminated, so that thereafter the action of the substance tested on the neighbouring test specimen may affect or even completely falsify the result.
An aim of the invention is therefore to provide a testing system which does not have the disadvantages mentioned above and which therefore allows, especially, a high throughput of substances to be tested and specimens to be tested, while at the same time allowing reliable identification and categorisation of the test specimens and of the substances tested, in which, furthermore, contamination of neighbouring test specimens is ruled out and which is automated to the highest possible degree, so that it is particularly efficient, that is to say, for example, it is also able to operate overnight and without supervision.
That problem is solved by the testing system according to the invention. According to the invention there is therefore provided a testing system for testing chemical substances or substance mixtures for their activity, especially for testing potential plant protection compositions, such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, acaricides, nematicides and the like, especially insecticides, fungicides and herbicides, wherein the chemical substance to be tested or the substance mixture to be tested is applied to a test specimen, especially to plants or parts of plants, such as sections of leaves and the like, and, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the test specimen is examined for the activity of the substance or substance mixture, in which testing system first of all a type of test specimen, e.g. a specific plant variety, is selected from a stock of test specimens, and the substances to be tested or the substance mixtures to be tested are selected from a stock of substances or substance mixtures to be tested; the selected type of test specimen and the selected substances or the selected substance mixtures are then identified (BC
1
, BC
2
) by means of a machine-readable code and those codes are supplied to a memory unit (
12
), the test specimens being placed in readiness in a carrier plate (
30
) by deposition of each test specimen or a section (BR) of test specimen in a well (
300
) that is provided in the carrier plate (
30
) and is at least partly filled with a nutrient solution (
301
) or a gel and the carrier plate being thus charged; and then either a spraying device (
150
,
151
,
158
) is positioned immediately above the well(s) (
300
) of the carrier plate (
30
) and sprays the test specimen deposited therein with the selected substance or the selected substance mixture, or the spraying device (
150
,
151
,
158
) is inserted into the well(s) (
300
) of the carrier plate (
30
) and sprays the test specimen deposited therein with the selected substance or the selected substance mixture and is then removed from the well (
300
) again.
A nutrient solution within the context of the present invention is to be understood as also including a substrate suitable for cultivating entire plants.
According to the invention preference is given to a testing system wherein first of all a type of test specimen, e.g. a certain plant variety, is selected from a stock of test specimens, and the substances to be tested or the substance mixtures to be tested are selected from a stock of substances or substance mixtures to be tested; the selected type of test specimen and the selected substances or the selected substance mixtures are then identified (BC
1
, BC
2
) by means of a machine-readable code and those codes are supplied to a memory unit (
12
), the test specimens being placed in readiness in a carrier plate (
30
) by deposition of each test specimen or a section (BR) of test specimen in a well (
300
) that is provided in the carrier plate (
30
) and is at least partly filled with a nutrient solution (
301
) or a gel and the carrier plate being thus charged; and then a spraying device (
150
,
151
,
158
) is inserted into the well(s) (
300
) of the carrier plate (
30
) and sprays the test specimen deposited therein with the selected substance or the selected substance mixture and is then removed from the well (
300
) again. In this embodiment preference is given to a spraying device that comprises a nozzle body (
150
) having a sealing ring (
152
) which is so arranged that, on insertion of the nozzle(s) (
151
) of the nozzle body (
150
) into the respective well (
300
) of the carrier plate (
30
), the sealing ring tightly surrounds the well (
300
) in the carrier plate (
30
), and the spraying device has a reservoir (
156
) for the substance to be applied to the test specimen or the substance mixture to be applied to the test specimen and a spray channel (
153
) which is provided with a compressed air connection at its end remote from the test specimen, the reservoir (
156
) and the spray channel (
153
) being connected to one another by a very narrow feed channel (
157
) which opens into the spray channel (
153
), it being especially preferable for the nozzle body (
150
) to have a plurality of linearly arranged nozzles and associated reservoirs and also spray and feed channels and sealing rings or a plurality of linearly arranged micropipettes (
158
), the distance (D) between the individual nozzles or micropipettes corresponding to the distance (E) between the wells (
300
) within a line of the carrier plate (
30
). In this embodiment it is especially advantageous if the nozzle body (
150
) comprises an air inlet channel (
154
) or channels and an air outlet channel (
155
) or channels, which are each so arranged that while the nozzle (
151
) is inserted in the respective well (
300
) of the carrier plate (
30
) the channels are in communication with the well (
300
).
S

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