Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides are widely used in agriculture to improve the yield and quality of crops. However, most of the compounds used are chemically synthesized. Excessive use of these compounds will not only cause environmental pollution, but also may have a negative impact on human health. In order to develop greener agricultural systems, researchers have adopted environmentally friendly strategies such as the application of organic fertilizers from plant and animal waste and pesticides based on plant extracts and microorganisms. Due to the unique environmental conditions and vast territories, marine habitats provide more abundant biological resources than terrestrial environments. These biological resources are of great value to the development of ecological agriculture. At present, a large amount of data shows that active ingredients derived from marine plants, animals or microorganisms play a key role in crop protection and improvement. But how to apply the abundant marine biological resources to agriculture more efficiently has become a major issue of global experts.
Applications of marine active ingredients in agriculture
A large number of marine biological species provide valuable resources for obtaining a variety of structurally diverse natural active ingredients. The main applications of these marine active ingredients in agriculture are as follows.
- Stimulates growth and maturation of plants
Marine algae contain a variety of active ingredients that promote plant growth and maturation. For example, polysaccharides extracted from marine macroalgae are well-known plant stimulants. They are rich in functional groups and can bind to some micro elements with important plant nutritional value. They have been used as foliar sprays to enhance plant growth in freezing, drought and salty environments, showing significant strong resistance to fungi, bacteria and viruses, as well as increasing the yield and productivity of several crops.
Pest control is not only an important part of agricultural production, but also a key link to ensure stable and efficient production of agricultural products. The use of insecticides is a modern means of pest control, with convenient, fast, efficient and economical advantages. Structurally unique marine active ingredients offer significant advantages in the development of insecticides. For example, pyrroloaminopropylimidazole alkaloids from the Indian Ocean sponge Cymbastela sp. have good potential for pest control and they have significant insecticidal activity against agricultural pests including larvae of Spodoptera exigua (beet army worm) and Diabrotica undecimpunctata (corn rootworm) [1].
Around 80% of plant diseases are caused by fungi, which cause huge economic losses to producers and also pose a risk to human public health due to food shortages. A large proportion of the active ingredients derived from marine organisms have shown effective antifungal capabilities. According to statistics, in the past 20 years, about half of the marine active ingredients with antifungal activity have been isolated from sponges and bacteria. It can be said that sponges and bacteria have made great contributions to the healthy growth of plants.
What can we do?
Alfa Chemistry believes that the emergence of marine active ingredients will become a new direction for the development of pesticides and fertilizers. As a specialist supplier of marine natural products, we are committed to developing new and improved formulations for our customers to meet the challenges in the agricultural field. If you have any ideas or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Reference
- Hong, T. W.; et al. Agelastatins C and D, New Pentacyclic Bromopyrroles from the Sponge Cymbastela sp., and Potent Arthropod Toxicity of (−)-Agelastatin A. J. Nat. Prod. 1998, 61: 158-161.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
