The application of osthol in agriculture continues to expand
09/28/2025 09:47:35
The application of osthol in agriculture continues to expand
Cnidium monnieri, a natural coumarin compound derived from the Umbelliferae plant Cnidium monnieri, has been accelerating its transition from "laboratory" to "field" in recent years, becoming the most anticipated new star of plant-based pesticides in the green agriculture field. From 2023 to present, field data released by 22 provinces and 47 experimental sites across the country showed that the average efficacy of snake seed extract against 14 plant pathogenic fungi, including powdery mildew, gray mold, and downy mildew, reached 78.4%, significantly better than traditional chemical synthetic agents such as methyl tobramycin (61.2%) and azoxystrobin (65.7%). Its mechanism of action is not simple "poison killing", but by inducing plant autoimmune system (ISR), up regulating the expression of * PR-1a *, * PDF1.2 * and other defense genes, so that crops can start the "alert" state within 24 hours of pathogen infection, reducing the incidence rate by more than 60%.
In terms of pest control, osthol exhibits a triple advantage of broad-spectrum, rapid action, and low residue. Indoor bioassays showed that its 48 hour contact LC50 values against 9 major agricultural pests, including diamondback moth, whitefly, thrips, and cinnabar mites, ranged from 18.6-43.2 mg L ⁻¹, which was on the same level as 2.5% high-efficiency chlorpyrifos emulsion. However, its acute toxicity to non target natural enemies (ladybugs and sand flies) was 47-82 times lower. The tracking results of three consecutive crops in the 1200 acre cowpea demonstration area in Zhanjiang, Guangdong in 2024 showed that the use of 0.3% osthole microemulsion (dosage of 90 g a.i. hm ⁻ ²) reduced the pod moth infestation rate from 11.7% to 2.3%, reduced the use of chemical pesticides by 45%, and achieved a 100% pass rate in pesticide residue testing. The purchase price was 0.8 yuan kg ⁻ ¹ higher than conventional planting, resulting in an average increase of 640 yuan per mu for farmers.
The introduction of nanotechnology has added wings to snake bed extract like a tiger. The Agricultural Products Processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with Nanjing Forestry University, used high-pressure microjet self-assembly technology to encapsulate snake seed extract onto a corn soluble protein chitosan composite nanocarrier (particle size 82 ± 9 nm, encapsulation efficiency 94.7%). The contact angle of the nano formulation on the leaf surface decreased from 78 ° to 28 °, and the spreading area increased by 3.6 times; At the same time, the pH responsive "hydrazone bond" introduced into the carrier can rapidly break within 15 minutes in the alkaline gut of insects (pH 9.5), achieving targeted release, extending the field half-life of osthol from 1.8 days to 5.2 days, and increasing the duration of efficacy by 2.9 times. In June 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for the first time included the "0.3% Osthol Nanomicrocapsule Suspension Agent" in the "Green Prevention and Control Famous and Excellent Catalogue", and approved the expansion of demonstration on three high-end economic crops: tea, strawberries, and tomatoes, with a planned demonstration area of over 1 million acres within three years.
The policy side also continues to intensify. In 2025, the No. 1 central document clearly proposed to "accelerate the industrialization of botanical pesticides", and the central government allocated a special fund of 500 million yuan to support the large-scale extraction, preparation process optimization and multi regional registration test of 11 natural product pesticides such as osthol. Three cities, Yancheng in Jiangsu, Weifang in Shandong, and Kunming in Yunnan, have started construction of a combined factory with a total production capacity of 1200 t a ⁻¹ for snake bed extract raw materials and nano preparations. It is expected to be put into operation gradually from 2026. At that time, the cost of 98% high-purity raw materials can be reduced from 2800 yuan kg ⁻¹ to below 1200 yuan kg ⁻¹, laying a price foundation for large-scale promotion. It is widely predicted in the industry that as the goal of achieving 60% green prevention and control coverage by 2030 approaches, the annual demand for osthol in agriculture is expected to exceed 2200 tons, becoming the third major plant-based pesticide product in China with an annual sales revenue of over 1 billion yuan, after matrine and resveratrol.
