Desert Miracle: Active Peptide Enzyme (APE+) Ushers in 'Intelligent Crop’ Growth Era

By Vicky Huang Email: viky@hzheruichem.com Phone No: 0086-13805794603

Under the scorching sun of the Sahara Desert, Professor Galinski from Heidelberg University in Germany crouched down, carefully observing a tenaciously growing plant. His discovery would change our understanding of agriculture and usher in a new era of Active Peptide Enzyme (APE+).

From Desert to Farmland: The Evolutionary Path of APE+

In 1985, Professor Galinski discovered extremozymes produced by halophilic bacteria in plants under this extreme environment. These enzymes could significantly enhance plants' stress tolerance, enabling them to survive in harsh environments characterized by high temperatures, drought, and salinity. Over the following decades, scientists continued to conduct in-depth research based on Professor Galinski's discovery, gradually developing the revolutionary product known as APE+. 

Let us review this exciting journey:

• 1990: Nitrogenase was developed utilizing soybean biological nitrogen fixation principles, effectively achieving crop biological nitrogen fixation and significantly reducing the usage of urea and other nitrogen fertilizers.

• 1993: Cellulase was employed to convert coarse fiber in soil into nutrients (such as glucose) can be absorbed by crops.

• 1995: Photosynthetic protease was introduced, improving photosynthetic efficiency, promoting crop carbon conversion, and stimulating crop yield potential.

• 1998: PLT transcriptase was used to induce gene expression in crop roots, activating ROS signal transduction, stimulating root cell growth and development, repairing damaged root systems, enabling root regeneration after injury, and extending root system lifespan.

• 2000: Phosphorus and potassium lyase together with phosphatase were developed, which can converts fixed calcium, magnesium, zinc, and other elements in the soil into water-soluble ionic forms, enhancing root absorption of nutrients and effectively reducing soil acidification and salinization.

• 2003: The development of oxidoreductases and other enzymes effectively solved problems caused by pesticide abuse, such as pesticide damage and residues, facilitating green and organic circular development in agriculture.

• 2005: Small molecule peptide enzyme and chitinase were developed, effectively opening up the "vascular bundles of roots and stems" in crops, ensuring smooth nutrient transport channels and improving the crop’s stress tolerance.

The Predicament of Chinese Agriculture

However, while scientists celebrated these breakthrough advances, China's farmlands faced severe challenges.

China's arable land accounts for 7% of the world's total, yet it consumes 33% of its total fertilizer production. Over the past 60 years, grain production in China has increased about four-fold, while fertilizer application has increased 100-fold.

With the continuous increase in chemical fertilizers and pesticide usage, excessive fertilization and pesticide application have become increasingly serious, leading to soil acidification, salinization, and worsening continuous cropping soil-borne disease problems. Crops are showing symptoms of root rot, yellowing, and premature aging. Farmers often mistake this for nutrient deficiency and continue to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to solve the problem, but the results are counterproductive. The "secondary salinization" of soil and crops becomes more severe. Crop metabolic capacity has become increasingly weak, and many crop "cancers" have emerged, such as Panama disease in bananas, citrus greening disease, cotton Fusarium wilt, and pear canker.

APE+: The Remedy for Agricultural Predicaments

Addressing the key issues facing crops and soil, APE+ is a promising solution to agricultural challenges.

1. Enhancing photosynthetic efficiency

The photosynthetic protease in APE+ can accelerate the photosynthesis process, promote chloroplasts to produce more photosynthetic products (i.e. carbohydrates), and guide the transmission to the reproductive organs of crops "bud, flower, fruit", achieve early flowering, fruiting, color change, and maturation, and stimulate the yield limit of crops. This is like equipping plants with a "super engine," enabling them to utilize sunlight more efficiently.

Field performance of APE+

2. Opening up water and nutrient transport channels

The effect of small molecule peptide enzyme is similar to clearing and dissolving "blood clots" for patients with "myocardial infarction or cerebral infarction." As we know, crops' transpiration process involves absorbing water and nutrients from the soil through the root system and transporting them to the "roots, stems, and leaves" through the stem vascular bundles. However, the abuse of chemical fertilizers has led to severe fertilizer residues in the soil, with EC values increasing. 

When the salt concentration and osmotic pressure in the soil are higher than those in the crop's root system, the soil will "suck back" water and nutrients from the crops through the root system, hindering crop growth, delaying development, and causing phenomena like "dead plants, rotten seedlings, and rotten roots." Small molecule peptide enzyme can directly open up the "root tips and stem vascular bundles" of crops, ensuring smooth vascular bundle channels, enhancing transpiration, and improving the root system's ability to absorb water and nutrients, ensuring healthy crop growth.

Field performance of APE+

3. Improving stress tolerance

Extremozyme is a specific functional enzyme that enhances crop stress tolerance. In situations where most crops are grown outdoors, and it is difficult to change the impact of adverse weather and soil conditions on their growth, improving the crop's stress tolerance becomes crucial. The extremozyme in APE+ can significantly improve crops' survival rates in extreme environments such as high temperature, drought, and high salinity. The function of extremozyme is similar to the COVID-19 virus – it is difficult to eliminate the virus source or prevent transmission routes, so we can only rely on "vaccination" to improve the body's immune system, reduce mortality rates, and mitigate pathogenicity.

4. Mitigating pesticide abuse

The application of oxidoreductase is like equipping plants with an "intelligent drug delivery system." With the growing demand for agricultural products and increasing emphasis on food safety, the country has issued the "Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law." However, blindly abusing pesticides is still common, especially in the hot and humid southern region where crops are planted in multiple seasons yearly. Pest and disease iterations breed rapidly, developing stronger resistance, and pesticide usage levels are 5-10 times higher than usual. Despite this intensive frequency and amount of pesticide use, the prevention and control effects are getting worse, even becoming "ineffective." Oxidoreductase can promote pesticide absorption, improve efficacy, and reduce residues caused by overuse, making crop growth healthier and agricultural products safer for consumption.

Originator of APE+ – ALEXAM

So, who developed this revolutionary technology? Let us get to know the originator of APE+: ALEXAM.

ALEXAM was established in 1985, with its R&D headquarters in Germany, specializing in APE+ technology research, development, and application innovation. ALEXAM has 30 years of scientific research achievements in the global biological enzyme field, holding 16 global invention patents. Its products are widely applied in medicine, food, livestock, cosmetics, industrial, and agricultural-related fields.

The raw material center of ALEXAM is in Egypt. ALEXAM Egypt was established in 2005, leveraging the resource advantages of the extreme desert environment, mainly engaged in the biological extraction and industrial production of core raw materials for APE+.

The distribution center is in China and ALEXAM China was established in 2022. It was mainly produced and sold APE+, serving China's green agrarian development and tapping into the enormous market potential in China's efficient agricultural development!

ALEXAM’s slogan is: Healthy Forever.

The company aims to usher in the era of "intelligent crop" growth and achieve full-process quality control of agricultural products from farm to table.

The Application of Biological Enzymes is the Trend of Future Agricultural Development

Enzymes are biocatalysts, and there would be no life without them. They govern the metabolism, nutrition and energy conversion processes of all living things. Early enzyme engineering technology mainly involved extraction, separation, and purification from animal, plant, and microbial materials. In the 1980s, enzyme immobilization technology achieved a breakthrough. ALEXAM, with over 30 years of scientific research achievements in the biological enzyme field and 16 global invention patents, has developed APE+ (active small molecule peptide mix with enzymes), establishing the "milestone" of earliest research and most comprehensive application in the biological enzyme field. The 6.0 era of APE+ has arrived and will be more extensively applied in medicine, food, livestock, household chemicals, and industrial and agricultural-related fields.

The development of agricultural planting in the next 60 years will largely depend on the potential performance of crops in terms of their health, yield increase, quality improvement, and stress tolerance, all of which are inseparable from enzymes.

APE+ has high efficiency, specificity, functionality, complexity, and automatic regulation. It has broad compatibility and adaptability, can be mixed with traditional pesticides and fertilizers, consumes low energy, produces no pollution, and highly enhances pesticide and fertilizer efficacy. In fertilizer formulations and application schemes, if biological enzymes are added, they can quickly and effectively promote crops' intelligent absorption and conversion of nutrients, intelligently distribute nutrients to the most needed parts of crop growth, relieve nutrient antagonism, and improve fertilizer utilization. APE+ can also be added as an adjuvant to pesticide products, opening up broad space for energy-saving and efficiency-increasing, pollution reduction, ensuring agricultural product safety, and differentiated development paths of the company.

Ushering in the Era of "Intelligent Crop" Growth

From the historic discovery in the Sahara Desert to the revolutionary technology that ushers in "intelligent crop" growth, the story of APE+ told us that the future of agriculture lies not in simply increasing agri-inputs, but in wisely stimulating the inherent potential of crops.

As ALEXAM says, we are entering an "enzyme era." In this era, we will witness tremendous changes in agricultural production mode and see the gradual formation of greener, healthier, and more efficient agricultural ecosystems. APE+ is like a "magic key" that opens the "genetic expression code" from within the crop itself. It will play an increasingly important role in stimulating crop growth potential, and the era of human-initiated "intelligent crop" growth is not far off.

For more information, please contact: Jarod Lee CEO at ALEXAM China Email: viky@hzheruichem.com

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