Although there are difficulties, we still have confidence in botanical pesticides.

China's pesticide industry lacks creative products, mainly imitating foreign patent expired products. Although botanical pesticides are the rookies in the pesticide family, they have created space and opportunities for Chinese local enterprises to launch their own products. Most of China's botanical pesticide companies are small and medium-sized enterprises with a weak foundation, but they are working hard, hoping to break into this industry. At the 2010 China Botanical Pesticide Industry Forum, we interviewed Xing Fuming, chief engineer of Beijing Qingyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Mr. Xing has more than 40 years of experience in the pesticide industry and is well versed in the development process and laws of this industry. During the interview, Mr. Xing repeatedly and modestly stated that some of his views were based on the opinions and articles of experts and scholars.

China's pesticide industry lacks creative products, mainly imitating foreign patent expired products. Although botanical pesticides are the rookies in the pesticide family, they have created space and opportunities for Chinese local enterprises to launch their own products. Most of China's botanical pesticide companies are small and medium-sized enterprises with a weak foundation, but they are working hard, hoping to break into this industry. At the 2010 China Botanical Pesticide Industry Forum, we interviewed Xing Fuming, chief engineer of Beijing Qingyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Mr. Xing has more than 40 years of experience in the pesticide industry and is well versed in the development process and laws of this industry. During the interview, Mr. Xing repeatedly and modestly stated that some of his views were based on the opinions and articles of experts and scholars.

Make full use of the synergistic effect of various active ingredients

Question: What are the unique advantages of your company's "Qingyuan Bao" 0.6% oxygen bitterness? Lactone agent?
Xing Zong: 0.6% oxygen bitter? Lactone aqua is our company's fist product. The iconic substance of this product is matrine, and it also contains a variety of insecticidal active ingredients in Chinese medicinal materials, such as Stellera chamaejasme and Platycladus orientalis. Because there are many toxicological factors, this product is aimed at multiple targets of pests, producing a variety of synergistic effects of stomach poison, contact killing, and avoidance, so the drug effect is good and it is difficult to produce resistance. We have cooperated with the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for more than ten years. Studies have proved that this product not only has insecticidal effects, but also can sterilize, such as tea cake disease, anthracnose, and even has a certain preventive effect on plant viruses. Matrine is derived from plant seeds, and the humic acid content in the extract can reach more than 20%. Therefore, the product contains a large amount of humic acid, so it can also promote the growth of tea and help plants improve their disease resistance.

Question: What are the characteristics of botanical pesticides compared to chemical pesticides?
Mr. Xing: Compared with chemically synthesized pesticides, botanical pesticides have many advantages: First, the active ingredients of botanical pesticides are natural substances derived from nature. Nature has a smooth degradation path, does not pollute the environment, and has no drug residues. The safety interval is short (this is both a benefit and a disadvantage, a double-edged sword), and it is especially suitable for direct edible crops such as vegetables, fruits, and tea. Second, the active ingredients of botanical pesticides are diversified. If one is purified, the effect is not good, because it is a synergistic effect of multiple components. Botanical pesticides have many toxicological factors and can act on multiple targets, which is conducive to overcoming resistance, while most chemical pesticides have a single target and are prone to resistance due to a single component. Under normal circumstances, the higher the purity of the drug's ingredients, the faster the pest's resistance to it, such as deltamethrin, which is "enemy kill", was used in our country in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s, diluted 10000 times, The effect is very good, but now, even 1000 times, the effect is not very good. Third, botanical pesticides contain a large number of nutrients, which can stimulate crop growth and increase production and income. Fourth, plant-derived pesticide raw materials are readily available. Our company has renovated 400,000 mu of Wulanbuhe Desert in Inner Mongolia, of which 10,000 mu of Chinese herbal medicine planting base has been built, and extraction factories have been built locally. The raw materials come from its own base. This not only transforms the ecological environment, but also provides industrial raw materials. Fifth, plant sources or natural substances are important sources for the synthesis of new pesticide lead compounds and the basis for the creation of pesticides. For example, nicotinic imidacloprid and acetamiprid, as well as second-generation thiamethoxam and thiacloprid, were further created using nicotine nicotine as the basic substrate. The framework structure of pyrethroid pesticides comes from natural pyrethrins. Chlorobenzamide ("Kangkuan") comes from nutin receptor.

Of course, botanical pesticides are not without drawbacks. First of all, in addition to pyrethrin, nicotine, rotenone and a few other varieties, most of the slow efficacy, not easy for farmers to accept. Second, the active ingredient is easy to decompose and the composition of the preparation is complex. Third, the distribution of plants is regional, and the content of active ingredients is affected by the origin, climate and harvest season, and the raw materials are quite different. Fourth, the active ingredients exist in the special parts of the plant, and the processing and collection are restricted by the season. Fifth, the dilution ratio is low, the use of high cost, cost-effective can not be compared with chemical pesticides.

With the development of science, these problems are gradually being solved, such as the use of modern extraction and processing technology, can overcome the product stability is not good, storage stability is poor, the use of high cost shortcomings.

Question: What do you think is the direction of the development of botanical pesticides?

Xing Zong: I came here to learn about new product development. Enterprises want to develop, always hope to have new technology. New compounds, new plant sources. Personally, I think there is more potential in pesticides. Botanical pesticides still rely on the compatibility of multiple substances. The hope of fungicides is also relatively large, because there are many germicidal plants in Chinese medicine, such as rhubarb and berberine. There are also anti-virus, such as cow heart Pu Zi grass, purple jasmine. As well as insecticidal and bactericidal Solanum nigrum and Cnidium.

The research direction of botanical pesticide development is reflected in two aspects. On the one hand, the mature varieties were modified to resist photolysis, anti-isomerization and anti-oxidation. For example, pyrethrins have poor stability and are easy to photolyze, rotenone is easy to isomerize, and nicotine is easy to photolyze. We have conducted research on these problems, and have achieved gratifying results, which have been applied to our production to stabilize the preparation and achieve a certain shelf life.

Another aspect is the search for new plant source platforms. However, the investment in such basic research is large and the results are slow. There are hundreds of thousands of plants in nature, but only a few thousand have biological activity, and each contains a variety of compounds. Research in this area cannot be completed by a single enterprise. One of the purposes of my participation in this conference is to explore opportunities for collaboration with research institutions.

Broad market prospects

Question: With the gradual withdrawal of highly toxic pesticides from the market and the increasing demand for green food in the market, what do you think will be the development of the application of botanical pesticides?

Mr. Xing: my country has a vast territory and is rich in plant resources. Among them, there are thousands of plants that have insecticidal, bactericidal, antiviral, and regulating plant growth. There are more than 200 kinds of plants described in "Chinese Soil Pesticides" alone. In the process of long-term evolution, plants struggle with diseases, insect pests and natural disasters, induce secondary substances with special biological activity, which can resist diseases and insect pests and the invasion of harsh natural environment. However, among the hundreds of thousands of plants on the earth, only about 10% are investigated and studied on biochemical properties, and even less are developed as pesticides. As scientific research units and enterprises gradually increase their investment and efforts in research and development, more and more new botanical pesticide varieties will appear. Moreover, botanical pesticides developed by plants have the characteristics of no pollution to the environment and resistance to diseases and insect pests. They have broad application prospects in the integrated prevention and control of diseases and insect pests, especially in the production of pollution-free, green food and organic food.

Development of multi-species, multi-specifications, a variety of control objects of pesticides

Question: Your company's products are exported to many overseas countries. What are the characteristics of the demand for pesticide products in overseas markets? What measures have your company taken to meet the needs of customers?

Xing Zong: Most of the foreign markets are order-based production, and the basis of orders is samples. Every year we have to prepare 0.5 tons to 1 ton of samples. The demand of overseas market is small batch, urgent goods, wide range of product functions, strict packaging, generally order-based production. Our company to strengthen scientific research, research and development of many varieties and specifications of a variety of control objects of pesticides.

At the same time, foreign customers will put forward special requirements for the product, such as adding molybdenum, boron, or sulfur, copper in the product. After adding these substances, the stability of the product may change, such as precipitation and stratification. Any kind of pesticide requires good stability, which requires us to have a solid foundation and rich experience. There can be no mistakes, otherwise the customer will return the goods and the reputation of the enterprise will be affected. Because we have a rigorous scientific experimental basis and strict production process discipline, so as to ensure that the quality of our products is stable and qualified. For more than ten years, we continue to adhere to scientific exploration, bold innovation, research and development of new varieties and new specifications, to adapt to market conditions, to meet customer needs. Over the years, there has never been a quality problem, the output of products has increased year by year, and new products continue to appear, becoming one of the best-selling products in the pesticide market at home and abroad.

It is expected that the government will increase the support policy for botanical pesticides.

Question: Where is the bottleneck in the development of green pesticides? What strategies can be adopted to deal with it?
Mr. Xing: In the large family of pesticides, the proportion of botanical pesticides is very small, and the systematic research time is also short. At present, although the total amount of plant-derived pesticide industry in China is increasing and the market is expanding day by day, it can not cover up the following obvious deficiencies and difficulties encountered:

At present, private enterprises are mainly engaged in the development of botanical pesticides, and the overall industrial scale is relatively small and lacks core competitiveness.

The production process is mainly based on traditional solvent extraction or water extraction, and lacks modern extraction, purification, separation technology, process and equipment. The product dosage form is single, the new dosage form is few, and the processing level is relatively backward.

The country does not yet have a unified standard for the production of raw materials, extraction, processing, and quality control of botanical pesticides. The quality of products on the market is uneven, and there are few varieties. As long as one product sells well, many companies will start one after another, and even the export destination It is a region.

In addition, the price fluctuates greatly. Some products used to cost more than 100,000 yuan per ton, but now they are only tens of thousands of yuan. In the absence of a significant improvement in the production process, a decline in the selling price of the product means a lower profit margin. In addition, affected by macro policies, such as exchange rate changes (RMB appreciation), export tax rebates reduced (from 13% to 5%), and the price of Chinese herbal medicines rose, the profits of enterprises will also decrease. Enterprises in the case of low income will naturally reduce the investment in scientific research.

Even if enterprises have successfully developed new products and applied for patents, due to their limited ability to protect patents, they often tend to devote their energy to developing new products rather than safeguarding their rights.

All these reasons cause the enterprise to reduce the ability to resist risks.

However, there have also been many positive situations. For example, the export of botanical pesticides has increased significantly in recent years. Although prices are falling and profit margins are decreasing, the quantity of market demand is increasing. In addition, the technical level of the industry is also improving. With the rapid development of organic agriculture, the demand for botanical pesticides increases, and the position of botanical pesticides in the whole industry will gradually improve in the future.

Since we have chosen botanical pesticides, we also hope to develop this industry and make it bigger and stronger. As far as enterprises are concerned, I think a series of measures need to be taken to strengthen their own strength. On the one hand, enterprises should increase investment in scientific research, including capital, manpower, technology, equipment and other aspects. Every year, our company recruits high-level talents to carry out scientific research work. Even many marketing personnel have master's degrees. The laboratory has recently been equipped with ultrasonic extraction equipment, and it is also ready to purchase supercritical extraction equipment and new dosage form experimental equipment. Increase investment in scientific research.

On the other hand, we also cooperate with universities and scientific research institutions to transform scientific research results and form the integration of production, education and research. Researchers have concepts and ideas, but they are not necessarily suitable for large-scale production of enterprises and cannot create value for enterprises. This requires in-depth exchanges and communication between the two sides.

Finally, in order to ensure the healthy and rapid development of my country's botanical pesticide industry, this industry with the most Chinese characteristics, safety and environmental protection, and high industrial relevance will be bigger and stronger. We call for 1. simplifying the registration procedures for botanical pesticides, establishing production, testing, registration and evaluation procedures that meet the characteristics of botanical pesticides, and reducing the registration costs of botanical pesticides. Chemical pesticides are single substances, and botanical pesticides emphasize coordination and compatibility, so the registration standards and procedures of chemical pesticides cannot be copied.
The 2. government should provide support policies for botanical pesticide production enterprises in terms of technology development, market promotion, taxation, etc., provide financial support for enterprises, and encourage technological innovation of enterprises.

 

Make full use of the synergistic effect of various active ingredients

Question: What are the unique advantages of your company's "Qingyuan Bao" 0.6% oxygen bitterness? Lactone agent?
Xing Zong: 0.6% oxygen bitter? Lactone aqua is our company's fist product. The iconic substance of this product is matrine, and it also contains a variety of insecticidal active ingredients in Chinese medicinal materials, such as Stellera chamaejasme and Platycladus orientalis. Because there are many toxicological factors, this product is aimed at multiple targets of pests, producing a variety of synergistic effects of stomach poison, contact killing, and avoidance, so the drug effect is good and it is difficult to produce resistance. We have cooperated with the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for more than ten years. Studies have proved that this product not only has insecticidal effects, but also can sterilize, such as tea cake disease, anthracnose, and even has a certain preventive effect on plant viruses. Matrine is derived from plant seeds, and the humic acid content in the extract can reach more than 20%. Therefore, the product contains a large amount of humic acid, so it can also promote the growth of tea and help plants improve their disease resistance.

Question: What are the characteristics of botanical pesticides compared to chemical pesticides?
Mr. Xing: Compared with chemically synthesized pesticides, botanical pesticides have many advantages: First, the active ingredients of botanical pesticides are natural substances derived from nature. Nature has a smooth degradation path, does not pollute the environment, and has no drug residues. The safety interval is short (this is both a benefit and a disadvantage, a double-edged sword), and it is especially suitable for direct edible crops such as vegetables, fruits, and tea. Second, the active ingredients of botanical pesticides are diversified. If one is purified, the effect is not good, because it is a synergistic effect of multiple components. Botanical pesticides have many toxicological factors and can act on multiple targets, which is conducive to overcoming resistance, while most chemical pesticides have a single target and are prone to resistance due to a single component. Under normal circumstances, the higher the purity of the drug's ingredients, the faster the pest's resistance to it, such as deltamethrin, which is "enemy kill", was used in our country in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s, diluted 10000 times, The effect is very good, but now, even 1000 times, the effect is not very good. Third, botanical pesticides contain a large number of nutrients, which can stimulate crop growth and increase production and income. Fourth, plant-derived pesticide raw materials are readily available. Our company has renovated 400,000 mu of Wulanbuhe Desert in Inner Mongolia, of which 10,000 mu of Chinese herbal medicine planting base has been built, and extraction factories have been built locally. The raw materials come from its own base. This not only transforms the ecological environment, but also provides industrial raw materials. Fifth, plant sources or natural substances are important sources for the synthesis of new pesticide lead compounds and the basis for the creation of pesticides. For example, nicotinic imidacloprid and acetamiprid, as well as second-generation thiamethoxam and thiacloprid, were further created using nicotine nicotine as the basic substrate. The framework structure of pyrethroid pesticides comes from natural pyrethrins. Chlorobenzamide ("Kangkuan") comes from nutin receptor.

Of course, botanical pesticides are not without drawbacks. First of all, in addition to pyrethrin, nicotine, rotenone and a few other varieties, most of the slow efficacy, not easy for farmers to accept. Second, the active ingredient is easy to decompose and the composition of the preparation is complex. Third, the distribution of plants is regional, and the content of active ingredients is affected by the origin, climate and harvest season, and the raw materials are quite different. Fourth, the active ingredients exist in the special parts of the plant, and the processing and collection are restricted by the season. Fifth, the dilution ratio is low, the use of high cost, cost-effective can not be compared with chemical pesticides.

With the development of science, these problems are gradually being solved, such as the use of modern extraction and processing technology, can overcome the product stability is not good, storage stability is poor, the use of high cost shortcomings.

Question: What do you think is the direction of the development of botanical pesticides?

Xing Zong: I came here to learn about new product development. Enterprises want to develop, always hope to have new technology. New compounds, new plant sources. Personally, I think there is more potential in pesticides. Botanical pesticides still rely on the compatibility of multiple substances. The hope of fungicides is also relatively large, because there are many germicidal plants in Chinese medicine, such as rhubarb and berberine. There are also anti-virus, such as cow heart Pu Zi grass, purple jasmine. As well as insecticidal and bactericidal Solanum nigrum and Cnidium.

The research direction of botanical pesticide development is reflected in two aspects. On the one hand, the mature varieties were modified to resist photolysis, anti-isomerization and anti-oxidation. For example, pyrethrins have poor stability and are easy to photolyze, rotenone is easy to isomerize, and nicotine is easy to photolyze. We have conducted research on these problems, and have achieved gratifying results, which have been applied to our production to stabilize the preparation and achieve a certain shelf life.

Another aspect is the search for new plant source platforms. However, the investment in such basic research is large and the results are slow. There are hundreds of thousands of plants in nature, but only a few thousand have biological activity, and each contains a variety of compounds. Research in this area cannot be completed by a single enterprise. One of the purposes of my participation in this conference is to explore opportunities for collaboration with research institutions.

Broad market prospects

Question: With the gradual withdrawal of highly toxic pesticides from the market and the increasing demand for green food in the market, what do you think will be the development of the application of botanical pesticides?

Mr. Xing: my country has a vast territory and is rich in plant resources. Among them, there are thousands of plants that have insecticidal, bactericidal, antiviral, and regulating plant growth. There are more than 200 kinds of plants described in "Chinese Soil Pesticides" alone. In the process of long-term evolution, plants struggle with diseases, insect pests and natural disasters, induce secondary substances with special biological activity, which can resist diseases and insect pests and the invasion of harsh natural environment. However, among the hundreds of thousands of plants on the earth, only about 10% are investigated and studied on biochemical properties, and even less are developed as pesticides. As scientific research units and enterprises gradually increase their investment and efforts in research and development, more and more new botanical pesticide varieties will appear. Moreover, botanical pesticides developed by plants have the characteristics of no pollution to the environment and resistance to diseases and insect pests. They have broad application prospects in the integrated prevention and control of diseases and insect pests, especially in the production of pollution-free, green food and organic food.

Development of multi-species, multi-specifications, a variety of control objects of pesticides

Question: Your company's products are exported to many overseas countries. What are the characteristics of the demand for pesticide products in overseas markets? What measures have your company taken to meet the needs of customers?

Xing Zong: Most of the foreign markets are order-based production, and the basis of orders is samples. Every year we have to prepare 0.5 tons to 1 ton of samples. The demand of overseas market is small batch, urgent goods, wide range of product functions, strict packaging, generally order-based production. Our company to strengthen scientific research, research and development of many varieties and specifications of a variety of control objects of pesticides.

At the same time, foreign customers will put forward special requirements for the product, such as adding molybdenum, boron, or sulfur, copper in the product. After adding these substances, the stability of the product may change, such as precipitation and stratification. Any kind of pesticide requires good stability, which requires us to have a solid foundation and rich experience. There can be no mistakes, otherwise the customer will return the goods and the reputation of the enterprise will be affected. Because we have a rigorous scientific experimental basis and strict production process discipline, so as to ensure that the quality of our products is stable and qualified. For more than ten years, we continue to adhere to scientific exploration, bold innovation, research and development of new varieties and new specifications, to adapt to market conditions, to meet customer needs. Over the years, there has never been a quality problem, the output of products has increased year by year, and new products continue to appear, becoming one of the best-selling products in the pesticide market at home and abroad.

It is expected that the government will increase the support policy for botanical pesticides.

Question: Where is the bottleneck in the development of green pesticides? What strategies can be adopted to deal with it?
Mr. Xing: In the large family of pesticides, the proportion of botanical pesticides is very small, and the systematic research time is also short. At present, although the total amount of plant-derived pesticide industry in China is increasing and the market is expanding day by day, it can not cover up the following obvious deficiencies and difficulties encountered:

At present, private enterprises are mainly engaged in the development of botanical pesticides, and the overall industrial scale is relatively small and lacks core competitiveness.

The production process is mainly based on traditional solvent extraction or water extraction, and lacks modern extraction, purification, separation technology, process and equipment. The product dosage form is single, the new dosage form is few, and the processing level is relatively backward.

The country does not yet have a unified standard for the production of raw materials, extraction, processing, and quality control of botanical pesticides. The quality of products on the market is uneven, and there are few varieties. As long as one product sells well, many companies will start one after another, and even the export destination It is a region.

In addition, the price fluctuates greatly. Some products used to cost more than 100,000 yuan per ton, but now they are only tens of thousands of yuan. In the absence of a significant improvement in the production process, a decline in the selling price of the product means a lower profit margin. In addition, affected by macro policies, such as exchange rate changes (RMB appreciation), export tax rebates reduced (from 13% to 5%), and the price of Chinese herbal medicines rose, the profits of enterprises will also decrease. Enterprises in the case of low income will naturally reduce the investment in scientific research.

Even if enterprises have successfully developed new products and applied for patents, due to their limited ability to protect patents, they often tend to devote their energy to developing new products rather than safeguarding their rights.

All these reasons cause the enterprise to reduce the ability to resist risks.

However, there have also been many positive situations. For example, the export of botanical pesticides has increased significantly in recent years. Although prices are falling and profit margins are decreasing, the quantity of market demand is increasing. In addition, the technical level of the industry is also improving. With the rapid development of organic agriculture, the demand for botanical pesticides increases, and the position of botanical pesticides in the whole industry will gradually improve in the future.

Since we have chosen botanical pesticides, we also hope to develop this industry and make it bigger and stronger. As far as enterprises are concerned, I think a series of measures need to be taken to strengthen their own strength. On the one hand, enterprises should increase investment in scientific research, including capital, manpower, technology, equipment and other aspects. Every year, our company recruits high-level talents to carry out scientific research work. Even many marketing personnel have master's degrees. The laboratory has recently been equipped with ultrasonic extraction equipment, and it is also ready to purchase supercritical extraction equipment and new dosage form experimental equipment. Increase investment in scientific research.

On the other hand, we also cooperate with universities and scientific research institutions to transform scientific research results and form the integration of production, education and research. Researchers have concepts and ideas, but they are not necessarily suitable for large-scale production of enterprises and cannot create value for enterprises. This requires in-depth exchanges and communication between the two sides.

Finally, in order to ensure the healthy and rapid development of my country's botanical pesticide industry, this industry with the most Chinese characteristics, safety and environmental protection, and high industrial relevance will be bigger and stronger. We call for 1. simplifying the registration procedures for botanical pesticides, establishing production, testing, registration and evaluation procedures that meet the characteristics of botanical pesticides, and reducing the registration costs of botanical pesticides. Chemical pesticides are single substances, and botanical pesticides emphasize coordination and compatibility, so the registration standards and procedures of chemical pesticides cannot be copied.
The 2. government should provide support policies for botanical pesticide production enterprises in terms of technology development, market promotion, taxation, etc., provide financial support for enterprises, and encourage technological innovation of enterprises.