Students prepare biological pesticides

Realizing that there are many types of biological pesticides on the market but the prices are high, while the products made by people are not very effective, Hoang Nhi and Nong Hoang Lan have carried out research on the topic with the hope of preparing an effective, low-cost, and environmentally friendly product to treat planthoppers, aphids and other pests on vegetables.

The main ingredients that the students use to make the preparation include: tobacco leaves, wild sunflower leaves, tomato leaves; and other ingredients such as: garlic, molasses, yeast, rice bran, clean water. In particular, tobacco leaves (also known as bo bo, yen bach, bu xich...) are considered an ideal green manure plant that supplements a high amount of organic biomass, very rich in nutrients for the soil. All parts of the plant contain essential oils, alkaloids, and tannins. This type of grass is also a pesticide that can prevent many types of fungi that are harmful to crops, kill flea larvae, nematodes that harm plant roots, and repel insects, and prevent termites and leaf-eating worms very effectively. Wild sunflowers (chrysanthemums, wild sunflowers...) are also a very good source of organic fertilizer for crops. In particular, wild sunflowers absorb indigestible potassium, convert it into easily digestible potassium and retain it in the stem, branches, and leaves, so when using compost from it, crops can easily absorb this source of potassium. According to scientific research, the leaves of the wild sunflower contain sesquiterpene, diterpenoids, Pyremethrin, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins... which are toxic to insects and pests. As for tomatoes, the leaves contain many gluco-alkaloids, of which tomanin is the main component. Tomanin is an antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-pest substance that harms plants. In addition, tomato leaves contain many alkaloids - a substance that is very effective in killing and repelling insects, especially aphids, moths, and caterpillars...

Hoang Nhi and Nong Hoang Lan with the product they researched and extracted.

After testing the incubation of the ingredients in different ratios, the research team determined that the optimal ratio is 2:4:1; the best incubation time is 3 months. Accordingly, the steps to produce the preparation are as follows: Grind the leaves of the grass, wild sunflower, tomato leaves with a small amount of garlic, molasses, yeast and rice bran. Put the mixture in a plastic jar, stir daily. After incubation for 3 months, filter through a thin layer to obtain the preparation solution. The product costs about 25,000 VND/liter, much cheaper than biological pesticides currently on the market.

After completing the experiments, the research team brought the product to the Institute of Biotechnology and Environment of Tay Nguyen University to test the ingredients and safety criteria of the biological pesticide. The results showed that the alkaloid preparation is toxic to aphids and pests; it does not contain ingredients harmful to humans and the environment. When using the preparation to kill aphids and pests on sweet cabbage plants, the effectiveness was equivalent to using the biological pesticide Make green 55WG, the number of sweet cabbage plants (in the experiment) affected by aphids and pests was very small, there was no phenomenon of aphids and pests returning, the plants grew and developed well.

Master Phan Minh Hai, member of the Jury of the Youth and Children's Creativity Competition, commented that the product created by the research team is new and creative. The product takes advantage of locally available plants and low-cost raw materials to create a highly effective, low-cost product that does not pollute the environment.

Doan Van Thanh

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/moi-truong/202509/hoc-sinh-dieu-che-thuoc-tru-sau-sinh-hoc-ac71392/