Matrine raw material: a new hope for green prevention and control in agriculture
09/12/2025 09:29:23
In the pursuit of sustainable agricultural development, how to effectively prevent and control pests and diseases while reducing the negative impact of chemical pesticides on the environment and agricultural products has become an urgent problem to be solved. In recent years, matrine raw material, as a plant derived biopesticide, has emerged in the agricultural field with its unique advantages, bringing new hope for the development of green agriculture.
Matrine is mainly extracted from the roots, stems, and leaves of leguminous plants such as Sophora flavescens and Sophora flavescens. It is an efficient, low toxicity, low residue, and environmentally friendly bioactive ingredient. Its mechanism of action is unique, with significant contact killing, gastric toxicity, and food refusal effects on various agricultural pests. Research has shown that matrine can act on the nervous system of pests, interfere with the normal transmission function of acetylcholine, cause obstruction or excessive excitation of nerve impulse transmission, and ultimately lead to paralysis, food refusal, and even death of pests. At the same time, it can also inhibit the growth and development of pests, interfere with their molting process, and affect the normal pupation and eclosion of larvae.
In practical applications, matrine raw material performs well. In vegetable cultivation, it has special effects on common pests such as aphids, cabbage caterpillars, and diamondback moths. For example, using 0.36% matrine water solution to control aphids on Chinese cabbage, with a dosage of 750mL or 630mL per hectare, the control effect can reach 88.5%, 92.7%, 90.1% and 88.3%, 93.2%, 89.7% after 3 days, 7 days, and 14 days, respectively. In terms of fruit tree cultivation, matrine has good killing and inhibitory effects on pests such as spider mites, rust mites, aphids, and psyllids. Taking citrus as an example, the use of matrine can effectively control the harm of citrus red spider mites, ensuring the yield and quality of citrus. In tea cultivation, matrine is used to control pests such as tea geometrids, tea caterpillars, and tea leafhoppers, which meets the strict requirements of green tea production and helps to produce high-quality, low pesticide residue tea.
In addition to pest control, matrine raw material also has a certain inhibitory or inactivating effect on certain plant pathogenic fungi and viruses. It can inhibit the synthesis of pathogenic bacterial cell walls, interfere with the biological oxidation process of the bacterial respiratory chain, and disrupt its energy metabolism, thus playing a good role in preventing and controlling various fungal and viral diseases such as vegetable downy mildew, powdery mildew, early blight, fruit tree anthracnose, ring stripe disease, as well as wheat scab, rice sheath blight, etc. For example, spraying matrine preparations during the early stages of cucumber downy mildew can effectively control the spread of the disease, with a prevention effect of about 80%, and promote plant recovery and growth, reducing yield losses caused by the disease.
Compared with traditional chemical pesticides, matrine raw material has many incomparable advantages. Firstly, it is easily degradable in the natural environment, has a short residual period, and poses a low risk of soil and water pollution. It does not leave a large amount of residue in agricultural products and meets the production standards for green and organic food, which helps to protect consumer health. Secondly, matrine is low toxic to mammals and relatively safe to natural enemies. Under recommended doses and reasonable use, its acute contact toxicity to pollinating insects such as bees is usually lower than many chemical pesticides, which is beneficial for protecting the ecological balance of farmland and playing a role in biological pest control. In addition, due to its unique mechanism of action, pests are not easily resistant to it, which makes matrine an important tool in integrated pest management and resistance management strategies. It can be rotated with chemical pesticides or other biological pesticides with different mechanisms of action to delay the development of pest resistance.
In order to better exert the effect of matrine raw material, some key points need to be noted during use. For example, it is strictly prohibited to mix it with alkaline pesticides to avoid damaging its active ingredients; It is necessary to adjust the dilution concentration strictly according to the product instructions based on the type of crop and the type of pest and disease, in order to avoid excessive concentration causing pesticide damage or insufficient concentration affecting the effectiveness of prevention; The optimal period for pesticide application is during the early larval stage of pests and the early stage of disease onset, when the resistance of pests and diseases is weak and the prevention and control effect is optimal; Meanwhile, it is recommended to alternate the use of biopesticides with other mechanisms of action to further delay the development of drug resistance.
With the increasing attention to food safety and ecological environment protection, green agriculture has become an inevitable trend in agricultural development. As an important support for green agriculture, the application prospects of matrine raw materials are very broad. In the future, with the continuous advancement of technology, the extraction process of matrine will be more optimized, the cost is expected to be reduced, and the formulation technology will continue to improve. New dosage forms that are more efficient, stable, slow-release, and resistant to rainwater erosion will be developed, such as microcapsule suspensions, nano formulations, etc., thereby further improving their application effect in the field. I believe that in the near future, matrine raw materials will play a greater role in the agricultural field and contribute significantly to achieving sustainable agricultural development.
