Natural herbicides & fungicides can be extracted from marine fungi

Recently, an innovation team of the Institute of Tobacco Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAS) has discovered marine natural products herbicide and fungicide pilot compounds, which provide an important theoretical and material basis for the research and development of green biopesticides. The research results have been published online in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Frontiers in Microbiology, Frontiers in Marine Science and Chinese Agricultural Science.

According to Dr. Donglin Zhao, more than 1,800 weeds harmful to crops have been found around the world, causing a 34% decrease in global food production each year. To reduce the impact of weeds on crops, a large number of herbicides are used every year, accounting for about 70% of the chemical pesticides used. The massive use of herbicides has led to pesticide residues, plant medicinal damage, environmental pollution, etc. There is an urgent need for research and development of new natural product herbicides. Few natural product herbicides have been reported so far. The team screened Xanthone compounds from marine fungi with significant herbicidal activity, and the minimum weed suppression concentration on weeds of Amaranthus genus represented by branched amaranth, green amaranth, etc. reached 8 micrograms/mL, and the activity was 4 times that of glyphosate, a positive drug. At the same time, the team discovered polyketones from secondary metabolites of marine Aspergillus and wood mould that had significant inhibition effect on rice blast and brucellosis bacteria, showing a good application prospect.
 
This series of research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the China Tobacco Corporation of Guizhou Province.