China grants registration for fungicide β-sitosterol

Chinese agrochemical company Shaanxi Sunger Road Bio-science has recently been granted temporary registration from Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA) for 0.66% β-sitosterol technical and its end-use product 0.06% ME containing this active ingredient. This product is used as a fungicide against rice stripe disease and rice black-streaked dwarf. This is the first β-sitosterol product registered in China.

 

Plant viral diseases can be extremely damaging to crops. It affects the global crop production by 10%-30% and generates a loss of $ 20 billion annually. There are not many measures to protect plants from viral disease, and that requires the development of new antiviral pesticides. β-sitosterol is highly resistant to plant virus. It alters the activity of the nuclease, inhibiting the synthesis of the virus. It also stops the viral infection indirectly through inducing resistance in the host.