The Growing Demand for Natural Products in Agricultural Applications Mohamed Murray Hunter School of Bioprocess Engineering Northern Malaysian University College of Engineering Introduction Essential oils are a source material for the manufacture of fragrances, flavours and pharmaceuticals and is a centuries old industry. The flavour and fragrance industry once completely relied on natural materials until the 1930’s, when synthetic materials began to gain acceptance. The development of synthetic materials acted as a catalyst in changing the nature of the cosmetic and food industries, allowing much wider fragrance and flavour use in end-products. This was due to lower cost of synthetic materials, the increased stability over wider pH ranges they offered, better resistance to oxidisation, and the elimination of dis-colourations in products, which had plagued natural fragrances

1. This changed cosmetics

from being a product for only the wealthy, to being a product that all could afford. However, this also dampened growth drastically for natural products, as society became fascinated with the ‘brave new’ synthetic world of chemistry. Likewise, before the 1980’s, natural plant extracts were only a novelty until manufacturers of cosmetics, personal care and household products realised the marketing potential of these materials for ‘green’ product positioning. Lifestyle changes in the West, enhanced through rising incomes and standards of living propelled many natural and tactile therapies into peoples’ lifestyles, thus bringing resurgence in demand for essential oils and other plant extracts again. The 1980’s and 90’s saw the golden age of pytho-entrepreneurship, where essential oil, herb and plant extract production boomed and almost went unchecked by the regulatory authorities. People began growing ginseng in their garages, selling them in the open market and growing all sorts of new exotic herbs and essential oils until marketing claims became totally outrageous. The EU introduced heavy regulation, the US FDA became much stricter and most countries in South-East Asia developed their own version of the FDA or enacted legislation controlling this industry. Now the essential oil, herb and plant extract trade is falling back into the hands of the larger international manufacturers and traders, who have the resources to deal with regulatory authorities, eliminating the opportunities existed during those two decades. Other than natural market growth, around 3-5% per year, there is no real growth for essential oils and plant extracts in their traditional markets, and certainly very little opportunity for any new essential oil or plant extract to be developed internationally, on a large scale. However, the same cannot be said for the use of essential oils and plant extracts in the agricultural market. Agriculture itself is currently undergoing a revolution with major changes in practices taking place. Agriculture is being redefined. Those involved in agriculture once held the view that the environment can be totally controlled through fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, hormones and trace elements. However accepted practices began to show their shortcomings and basic assumptions about agriculture re-questioned. Evidence showed conventional practices led to phosphates, heavy metals and herbicides seeping into water tables, crops absorbing unsafe levels of chemicals and land just failing to provide satisfactory yields, due to unsustainable practices. In some cases, agricultural communities have just been wiped out and ceased to exist or continued to operate with negative capital returns. As a result, Agriculture has gone back to the future, farmers re-evaluating the ways, practices and methods of the past. New paradigms have been developed with the catch phrases of ‘sustainable’, ‘integrated’, ‘organic’ and ‘balanced eco-system’. The ‘new-age’ farmer is much more sensitive to the eco-system that supports the viability of the enterprise and as a consequence is beginning to use a much wider information base to make decisions, with a holistic orientation, understanding in great detail relationships between ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’, focusing on balance.

Agriculture was once a so precise science that farmers believed they knew what remedy to use for what problem and even knew how to prevent these problems through establishing precise and disciplined preventative regimes and methods. Modern science provided this sense of confidence with hi-tech solutions such as using geo-stationary satellites to predict crop yields and insect plagues and through land sensing, could advise what fertiliser, how much, and when to apply it, to obtain the planned yield. A massive agro-chemical business evolved, providing all the technical answers needed, dominated by strong trans-national companies, where almost total oligopoly competition exists. The New Age of Agriculture

Three main factors are forcing change in agriculture.

Firstly, consumers have become much more aware of what they are eating and want food that is free of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, hormones and the like. These issues are being scrutinised so closely these days that consumer groups have put up such a fight against the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops out of fear that changed DNA, may have some unknown and undesirable long term health effects on consumers

2. In sensitivity to the

consumer, some companies are even labelling food as non-GM. This awareness is spurring the rapid growth of organic foods, where “organic farming is practiced in approximately 100 countries throughout the world, with more than 24 million hectares (59 million acres) now under organic management. Australia leads with approximately 10 million hectares (24.6 million acres), followed by Argentina, with approximately 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres). Latin America has approximately 5.8 million hectares (14.3 million acres) under organic management, Europe has more than 5.5 million hectares (13.5 million acres), and North America has nearly 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres)”

3. Further, organic farming has

shown an increase of 20% per annum over the last decade and now approximately 2% of the U.S. food supply is grown using organic methods

4. The global market for organic food and

drink reached $23 billion in 20025.

Secondly, conventional agriculture in Malaysia has caused eco-system contamination, particularly in the water tables and ponds located in agricultural areas. Land also contains traces from build up of residual chemicals used in agriculture.

Thirdly, to maintain sustainability of farms, the strategy of applying more chemicals in the form of pesticides and fertilisers was pursued. Land is not being rotated and topsoils are being eroded, thus requiring more nutrient replenishment, which continues to increase the cost to achieve the same yields, each year, in a vicious circle.

The first factor indicates a distinct shift in consumers tastes and habits, which is leading to changes in demand – this is a long term shift. To be viable and survive, a farmer must supply according to demand, or the enterprise will soon go out of business. This is the invisible hand that determines what should be produced, consumer trends must be heeded by farmers or the farm enterprise will be marginalised. The second and third factors combined are eroding profitability, making farming more marginal and unsustainable in the long term. This factor is threatening survival from the supply side. These factors combined, the market in an economic sense, is forcing a change in the approach taken to farming, as its very survival will depend on it – it is a structural change. Those that read the market correctly will survive and prosper, those that don’t will not survive. The little bit of evidence that supports this argument is the dramatic growth of certified organic farms in Malaysia between 2001 and 2002

6.

This changing approach to agriculture is redefining the framework that farmers now view field management. The old and new paradigms are summarised and compared in table 1 below

7;

Comparison of the Industrial and Biological Models of Agriculture

Industrial Model Biological Model Energy Intensive Information Intensive Linear Process Cyclical Processes Farm as a Factory Farm as an Ecosystem Enterprise Separation Enterprise Integration Single Enterprise Many Enterprises Monoculture Diversity of Plants and Animals Low-Value Products Higher Value Products Single Use Equipment Multiple Use Equipment Passive Marketing Active Marketing

These approaches require a completely new approach, in regards to the types of chemicals used. Agricultural chemicals must now support the eco-system (i.e., prevent further contamination and pollution of the water tables), add value, promote sustainability and assist in providing long term profitability.

The New Tools of Trade

Only certain types of fertilisers and pesticides are allowed in organic farming, including those derived from micro-organisms and materials derived from plants, animals, or mineral bearing rocks. Soaps are also allowed under many certifying authorities. Generally, pesticides and soaps allowed for organic farming are those that will break down quickly and non obtrusive to the eco-system. The discussion will now turn to some of the types of materials used in organic and sustainable farming.

1. Enzyme catalysts and Fertiliser/Insecticides

The use of enzymes as catalysts to produce composts and organic fertilisers is widely practiced in Australia, Europe, US, India and Thailand. By definition, this is a practical application of bio-process engineering

8. In Thailand, where organic agriculture is quickly

advancing, many farmers have been taught the skills and acquired the knowledge to produce their own enzymes for use as a catalyst to produce fertilisers through the fermentation process. By adding certain other ingredients into this process like the leaves and fruits of neem, citronella grass and tobacco leaves, fertiliser/insecticides can be made. Other products like Pseudo Hormones are also made using variations of the basic enzyme formula to promote flowering and the production of fruit. Local production of these enzymes developed because the importation of bokashi (photosynthetic organisms, lactobacillus) was too expensive to purchase. Consequently, the production of enzymes developed through trial and error and experience, rather than scientifically. Farmers develop their own fermentation formulae, which suits their particular purposes, specific to their geographical locations, crops and raw materials available. This of course means that the relative activity of different products will vary greatly depending on the skill and knowledge of individual farmers. The basic ingredients in the production of the ‘EM’

9 include fruits, vegetables and animal

waste. Fruits are rich in natural enzymes, which act as a catalyst to ripen and then disintegrate the same. Different fruits will produce different enzymes (i.e., citrus fruits ascorbic acid oxidase, pineapple bromelase, tomatoes pectinase, and papaya papain). Vegetables produce other enzymes, which like the fruits catalyse cellulose in the leaves to crispness and later softness and disintegration (i.e., sweet potatoes beta-amylase, leafy vegetables chlorophyllase and phenolase). Animal waste will produce yet other enzymes (i.e., peroxidase, elastase, lactase, etc). The primary enzymes that are produced at farm level are proteases in the form of bromelase from pineapples (Ananas comosus) and papain from papaya (Carica papaya). Bromelain is really a collection of similar protease, which are good protein digesting enzymes. Papain is

also good at breaking down fibrous substances. These are important qualities in producing composts and fertilisers. The table below shows a general formula for enzymes produced at village level. As mentioned previously, most people will have their own proprietary methods and ingredients.

A General Enzyme Base for Fertiliser production

Banana, grape, Pineapple, apple, orange, papaya, Mango stein

6 kilograms in various proportions according to person’s own formula

Molasses 3 kilograms

Water 20 kilograms

Chicken or cow manure 3 kilograms

Procedure: Place all ingredients together in a sealed tank and mix. Leave for at least one week. This process can be sped up by placing an existing enzyme in the mixture.

Once this base enzyme is ready, it can be used in the preparation of solid or liquid type fertilisers. Through varying the inputs into the fermentation process, it is possible to produce specific groups of enzymic compounds, which can be tailored towards specific applications, such as specific crops and soil types, while other products can be made by the household like cosmetics and detergents. Some farmers are producing their own herbicides for controlling weeds

10.

Common Enzymes, Potential Sources and Other Potential Applications

Enzyme Potential Sources Potential Applications

Ascorbic acid oxidase

Citrus fruits, leaf vegetables, cucumbers

Fruit preservation, cleaning applications

Beta-amylase Grains, sweet potatoes, taro, cassava

Yeast production

Bromelains Pineapples Fertilisers, pseudo hormones, cleaning, cosmetics, personal care, mouthwashes, skin healing, anti-acne, anti-microbial

Catalase Animal wastes, milk wastes Cosmetic, anti-ageing, oxidising Chlorophyllase Some leaf vegetables UV absorption Elastase Animal intestines Cosmetics, anti-aging Glucoxidase Some mushrooms, mould, other

fungi Anti-oxidant

Papain Papaya Fertilisers, wound and skin healing, mouthwashes, other cosmetics, dishwashing, all purpose cleaning

Preparation of the enzyme base in Sabah

The use of the enzyme in preparing solid fertiliser

2. Essential Oil Based Fungicides/Insecticides

A new generation of crop protection products is emerging in the market, based on a soap and essential oil emulsion. These products take advantage of the anti-microbial properties of tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternifolia) to function as a fungicide. Biomor of the United States manufactures these products under the trademarks of Timor and Tomorex

11. These products are certified as fully organic and are sold as fungicides and

insecticides. The company claims that these products can be tailor made to selectively attack insects, leaving those beneficial alone. It is further claimed that these products leave no residual and can fully negate the need to use copper or sulphur in field

application. The following photo shows the efficacy of the product on cucumber leaves, compared to a control and commercially available synthetic

12.

The company solved the problem of essential oil volatility through patented encapsulation processes

13, and sales have rapidly grown to a turnover of USD 50 million per annum, within

the first three years of operation14

, through South America, South Africa, Philippines, Greece, Australia and the United States. According to the company sales growth is severely hampered by the unavailability of enough tea tree oil to expand production.

3. Natural Anti-Stress Preparations from Betaines and Essential Oils

Degrading soil fertility, salinity, heavy metal residuals in the soil, and the effects of global warming, are subjecting crops in many temperate countries to stress. This has created a market for anti-stress products, which is slowly growing in importance to agriculture. The essential oil of some trees, Meleleuca bractea for example, have been found to substantially reduce the stress of crops

15. Plant stress levels can be lowered by applying

betaines produced from methylated prolines, N-methyl proline, trans-4-hydroxy-N-methyl proline and trans-4-hydroxy-N-dimethyl proline, extracted from various specifies of Meleleuca

16. A compound platyphyllol

17, found in Melaleuca cajuputi, a native of

Malaysia, has ‘UV blocking’ attributes18

, This could be used in treatment of plant stress, as one of the major stressors of plants is UV radiation. None of these natural products have been patented for this application or commercially produced at this point of time.

Control

Timorex 0.5 %

Nimgard + Kocide

Timorex 1 %

Melaleuca cajuputi trees in Terengganu

4. Plant Extracts: Neem based Products

Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is considered be many to be one of the wonder trees in our global bio-diversity. Numerous uses for this tree have been both reported and practiced by many indigenous peoples over the centuries. Neem is a major input in Thai and Indian agriculture for the production of natural insecticides at farm level. Neem contains a number of compounds of which two ‘steroid like’ molecules, azadirachtin and salanin

19, exhibit very potent insect repellency attributes. Neem does not knock down

insects like conventional pesticides, but rather interferes with the lifecycles, confusing them to the point they cannot reproduce and thus disappear

20.

The potential for neem as an agricultural input is tremendous, however there are a number of problems. Plantations of neem in Malaysia are very small, and even if there were massive plantings today, they trees could not be used for 5 years. ‘Neem oil’, which is not a true oil in the real sense but a tincture, can be extracted through solvents or through soaking out the active ingredients in a bin or tank in water. The ‘oil’ or tincture resulting, is very unstable and will lose activity within a relatively short period of time. Standardisation problems have been found with neem oil is available from India, which makes it difficult to use in large commercial operations practicing standard processes. Finally, there is an unresolved health and safety issue as neem also has contraceptive attributes, preventing neem from gaining registration as an agricultural material in many countries. Even though, this issue could be addressed, there is no central neem industry coordination group to raise finance to undertake the required research to produce a monograph.

Neem Tree in Perlis

5. Plant Extracts: Pyrethrums

Pyrethrum based products are rapidly growing in demand for application as a pesticide in agriculture. Under most jurisdictions it is organically certifiable. Pyrethrum is extracted via solvents (usually hexane) from the flowers of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium, which could grow well in many highland areas of Malaysia. Natural pyrethrum used to be the major active ingredient in household insecticides before the synthetic pyrethroids, which have much longer residual effects were developed. Natural Pyrethrums are non-toxic to humans and is known as one of the safest pesticides in use. The advantages of natural pyrethrum is that it has a fast knock down effect on insects, through attacking the insect nervous system, however the substance is very unstable in UV light, which breaks it down very quickly. Pyrethrum is usually applied as a spray on crops during the growth and maintenance periods.

Pyrethrum Daisy

5. Essential Oils in Soap Bases

Citronella oil soaps became popular in the 1980’s as a way to control insects on flowers and vegetables. This type of product was popular by a select group of nurseries and horticulturalists at the time because of the non-residual properties and low toxicity of these products. The efficacy of the product depended on suffocating insects during spraying and causing enough irritation for them to abandon the host plants. Soaps with essential oil additives are quite effective in intensive and confined areas, but of limited use in extensive farming due to the number of repeated applications required to maintain zero pest infestation. Variations of this product utilising eucalyptus, rosemary, pennyroyal, clove, nutmeg and tea tree oil have come onto the market in recent years. This type of formulation could be considered the forefather of the newer organic fungicides, mentioned under the first heading. The author patented this formulation in 1986, which is marketed under the brand Clensel in Australia, New Zealand and UK

21, under license with

Jeyes UK Ltd.

Clensel Insecticide Label

7. White Oils

White oil is a name given to oils emulsified in a soap base. Any number of oils including, paraffin, mineral oil, canola, caster, sunflower, can be used. These products are generally used to remove various funguses and scales from plants and trees. Some people add either ammonia or vinegar to the formulation to enhance the efficacy and add some insect repellency and enhance crop greenness before harvest. In general use these emulsions

Clensel Insecticide Formulation

Water 86.09% w/w

Potassium hydroxide 2.02%w/w

EDTA 0.0879%w/w

Oleic acid 10.60%w/w

Citronella oil 1.099%w/w

Sodium carbonate 0.8798%w/w

are sprayed over the plants. For diseased plants, they are manually applied and rubbed around the infected areas of the tree to remove the fungus and scales. There are many variations of this product on the market, with different philosophies and approaches. Traditional oils like paraffin

22 are used by many, however with the long CH2 chains, 30 in

this case, brings phototoxicity issues which can be potentially fatal to the plant. In addition these long chain oils may carry sulphur residuals. Also the film created by these oils can block the stomata (intake apparatus of the plant), preventing nutrients being taken up. Some practitioners opt for the vegetable oils and create mild soaps with various additives to assist in killing fungus spores and removing scales, like eucalyptus or tea tree oils.

A simple mild white oil formula with eucalyptus oil as an additive and preservative is shown in the table below;

A Simple White Oil Formula

Water 58.0%w/w

Castor Oil 30.67%w/w

Potassium hydroxide 5.78%w/w

Eucalyptus Oil 5.55%w/w

8. Organic Dusts

Garden dust is a multi-purpose insecticide/fungicide made up with a bulking agent and various synthetic and/or natural plant derivatives. Garden dust is used against plant diseases like powdery mildews, bacterial blights, early blights, fire blight, anthracnose, alternaria blight, leaf spot diseases, brown rot, apple cedar rust, peach leaf curl, peach canker, stem blight, shothole, leafscorch, black rot, scabs and botrytis

23. Garden dust also

provides some repellency against a number of insects. The usual active ingredient is rotenone, which is extracted from the roots, leaves and seeds of Derris elliptica, locally available in Malaysia

24. This product can be mixed with water and applied as a spray or

sprinkled over plants directly. Although most garden dusts are acceptable as an organic product, it can leave toxic residuals and would be harmful if applied too soon before harvest.

9. Organic Herbicides

The biggest single problem facing farmers in Malaysia is weed control. Organic herbicides based on vinegars and essential oils have not even come close to matching conventional herbicides as the results of a US study indicate, shown in the figure below

25.

Most, organic herbicides on the market, generally rely on acidic pH and burning out the grasses, which tend to produce spasmodic results. In a country like Malaysia, weed control is a chronic problem, usually requiring very strong conventional herbicides to counter extremely positive conditions for growth: warmth and high rainfall. In addition all organic herbicides are general and non-selective at this point of time. Alternative practices to using conventional herbicides are currently very limited and generally require the use of extensive labour, which is expensive, i.e., mulches, plastic covering, selective burning, etc

26. Opportunities exist to develop efficacy improvements in organic herbicides

through other formulating routes like specific enzyme development.

Comparison of a conventional Herbicide with an Organic Herbicide on the US Market

Product Reported Results*

Control O

Round Up Pro27

10

All-Down Organic28

Range 0.5 – 3.8

*1-10 with 10 = best after 10 days

Conclusion

The advantages of focusing on natural product research and development for application in the agriculture sector are many. Unlike, cosmetics, flavour and fragrance ingredients and pharmaceuticals, the costs of product registration are both cheaper and require much less data. Field efficacy trials for agricultural products are much cheaper and easier to manage than clinical trials for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The technologies, as discussed above are much easier and straight forward. The global agricultural market is much more fragmented than the flavour and fragrance and pharmaceutical industries, so this would allow much more ease in market entry for any future commercial product produced. Also of great importance, is that this region is one of the largest consumers of agricultural inputs, so it is not necessary to crack the European or US market straight away – there is plenty of business for these products locally before we go abroad, which is the opposite case for cosmetic ingredients, flavour and fragrance materials and pharmaceutical ingredients.

Competitive advantage can be gained through standardisation methods and in Malaysia we have the expertise to undertake this without outside assistance. Through standardisation and proprietary methods of manufacturing and processing to a standard set by us, intellectual property can be developed, which will further develop barriers to entry to other potential producers. The established multi-national companies in the agricultural input market, have a big disadvantage. These organisations are geared to factory and process manufacturing. In contrast, the production of organic products tends to rely on securing sources of materials, which are firmly under our control. This advantage, will give a local manufacturer time to start up, develop the market, before large scale competition enters the market with direct substitutes.

The new age farming discussed at the beginning of this article is rapidly growing and the market for agricultural input products is in excess of USD 50 billion and steadily growing. This is surely an opportunity that Malaysia’s natural product, biotechnology and agricultural researchers could focus on.

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Aerosols & Toiletries in Australia, Vol. 19, No. 3., (1996), P. 39. 2 BBC, GM Crops: An Action Network Briefing, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A2418509

(accessed July 2006) 3 The World of Organic Agriculture 2004-Statistics and Future Prospects, February 2004.

www.soel.de/inahlte/publikationen/s/s_74.pdf (accessed January 2006)

4 Published by the Natural Marketing Institute, in partnership with the Organic Trade Association,

http://www.ota.com/consumer_trends_2001.htm (accessed January 2006)

5 The Global Market for Organic Food & Drink, July 2003, Organic Monitor

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http://bse.unl.edu/ 9 This is the local name given to enzymes as a generic term

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Thailand: The Production of Enzyme Based Products, Cosmetics, Aerosols & Toiletries in Australia,

July 2006, in press.

11

Registered Trademarks of Biomor http://www.biomor.com/solutions.htm#e 12

Photo courtesy of Mr. Peter Tirosh 13

Currently 5 patents (1 approved and 4 pending) 14 Private communication with Mr. Peter Tirosh, owner 15

Naidu, B., P., Production of betaine from Australian Melaleuca spp. For use in agriculture to reduce

plant stress, Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 43, 2003, pp. 1163-1170, 16

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1989. 19

Report of an Ad Hoc Panel of the Board of Science and Technology for International Development,

Neem; A Tree for Solving Global problems, Washington D.C., National Academy Press, 1992, P. 34. 20 Ibid., P. 39 21

Australian Patent No. 617648 22

CH3(CH2)30CH3 23

http://www.ghorganics.com/Garden_Dust_Insecticide_Fungicide.html 24 Burkill, I. H., A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, London, Government

of the Straits Settlements, Volume 1, 1934, pp. 795-808.

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(accessed July 2006) 26

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Roff (eds.), Organic and Vegetable Cultivation in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, MARDI, pp. 109-110.

27

Registered Trademark of Monsanto. 28

http://alldownherbicide.com/