A research team of China Jiangnan University making new breakthroughs in eucalyptol-based biopesticide development

Recently, a research team of Jiangnan University has succeeded in development of a eucalyptol-based biopesticide with an excellent product performance. “We have made two major technical breakthroughs: one is the ‘3D enzymatic emulsion embedding’ that substitutes the conventional cyclodextrin embedding to the benefit of reduction of production cost; the other is the use of the ‘CPM dual water solubility technology’ to solve the problem of the poor water solubility of oily botanical pesticides, resulting in a doubled increase of stability and water solubility of eucalyptol as well as a significant improvement of the insecticidal effect, storage stability and easy use of the product,” says the team leader Quan Mingxia. 

Compared with the world’s only similar eucalyptol-based biopesticide, the price of this product is reduced by nearly 30% while the insecticidal effect is increased by 20% and the stability is improved by nearly 3 times, which fill up the technical gaps of biopesticides for effective action under extreme environment conditions.

“In the kiwifruit planting base in southern Zhejiang, it has been always a subject of discussion among farmers as how to make a bumper harvest of kiwifruit in the thousands of acres of farmland.” At one time, Quan Mingxia has learned that fruit and vegetable could be controlled through biotechnical applications, which has attracted her great interest. In December of the year, a research team for the eucalyptol study program was formed to conduct biopesticide research.

Botanical pesticides are extracted from plants, which are environment-friendly and are easily degraded without harm to humans, being the mostly recognized green and most environment-friendly pesticide variety worldwide. The research team has focused on research into botanical biopesticides, knowing that eucalyptol extracted from eucalyptus has the advantages of satisfactory insecticidal effect, with non-toxic and harmless features. China has a rich eucalyptus resource, but there is a problem of soil erosion. It would be a great contribution to ecological protection and sustainable development if the resource can be turned from a waste to a treasure. After 3 years and nearly 80 times of technical trials, the research team could successfully develop a eucalyptol-based biopesticide with an excellent product performance.

“Since the water solubility problem of eucalyptol could be solved in this way, can the water solubility problem of oily botanical pesticides be solved in this way as well?” Quan Mingxia asked herself. To this end, the research team started to conduct research on other plant essential oils. Through molecular model rearrangement and matching, the research team applied core technologies to the active ingredients of plant essential oils, having realized a full coverage of all botanical pesticide varieties. This is a successful breakthrough in research and development of oily botanical pesticides.

So far, the eucalyptol research team has executed agreements with a number of manufactures to jointly promote product commercialization and cooperate in further research and development toward industry fields such as daily use chemicals and food processing, in an effort to gradually cover whole plant essential oil industry sectors.