Innovation Pipeline

Millions of years of evolution have done wonders for plants and insects when it comes to natural repellents for fending off enemies.
Researcher Christina Engels at University of Alberta in Canada has found that mango seeds have amazing properties when it comes to knocking out lethal food bacteria.
Engels has found a way to put pure mango seed tannins to work as a natural food preservative that defeats various strains of the bacteria listeriosis. It’s a nasty but relatively rare bacterial infection that occurs primarily in newborn infants, elderly patients and patients who are immuno-compromised. Last year an outbreak in Ottawa killed 21 people when a contaminated meat-slicing machine spread the disease.
Researchers say that seeds from other fruits, like grapes, have similar properties to mango seeds. The findings were recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Insects also have some impressive chemical defense systems. The ground beetle has a citrus aroma that keeps predators at a distance.

Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., found that the beetles can produce a natural repellent called limonene, which belongs to a group of chemicals called terpenes.

Limonene has been patented as an insect repellent and is the active ingredient in the Orange Guard insect repellent.
What’s driving the biopesticide market? Three key elements: global consumer market demand for organic produce and reduced synthetic pesticides, global producer demand and a favorable and regulatory climate, according to Ohio State University researchers. Since 1996 with more than 250 products registered for use of which 78 are microbial pesticides, 160 are biochemical and 22 of which are plant-incorporated protectants. .
In 2005, sales of biopesticides accounted for an estimated $260 million in sales and that figure is expected to more than double by 2015 to $400 million, according to CPL Business Consultants. Lee Bruno