Docomycin is toxic to touch and stomach. Its mode of action is novel. After ingescence or contact with docomycin, the component will act on the nervous system of pests and continuously activate the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of the target insect, but its binding site is different from that of nicotine and imidacloprid. The International Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC) divided docomycin into the fifth group. Docomycin can quickly paralyze and paralyze pests, often causing pest death after 1-2 days, and the effect is fast.
Docomycin can kill a wide variety of pests, and its biggest feature is reflected in the effective control of thistle horse. Thrips are listed as a class of domestic crop pests and diseases, and there is no effective pesticide against such pests in the domestic market, and the docomycin series (including ethyl docidin) is the only effective pesticide category for thrips in the market at present. It is also reported that in the control of lepidoptera pests, the efficacy of doxomycin can be comparable to cypermethrin.
In addition, another advantage of docomycin is that it is safe. At present, there are no reports of drug harm of docomycin. Thanks to its unique mechanism of action, these products are also safe for mammals, aquatic animals and birds. The ingredient is also biodegradable. Docomycin can be used in green food production in China, and it is allowed to be used in organic cultivation in the United States and the European Union. In 2023, the European Union updated the preliminary results of the rereview of doxidomycin by Codihua as the main applicant, which considered that this hot insecticide had no endocrine disrupting effect, and the safety of doxidomycin was again recognized.
However, docomycin also has some drawbacks that limit its market expansion. The production cost of docomycin is high, the yield of docomycin produced by polyspora acanthophylla fermentation is low, the by-products are large, the extraction process is complicated and other factors lead to the high price of the product, which limits the popularization of docomycin. In addition, docomycin has poor photostability and degrades rapidly under sunlight. Therefore, docomycin products are prone to the problem of unsatisfactory durability.
To solve the problem of efficacy, Dow modified docidomycin with chemical structure and prepared ethyl docidin. This component also acts on the insect nervous system, has gastric toxicity and tactile action (IRAC listed as Group 5), but has a wider insecticidal spectrum and stronger efficacy than doxidomycin. Two of the components, ethyl policidin-J and ethyl policidin-L, have both won the U.S. President's Green Chemistry Challenge Award. In China, ethyl polycidin has entered the directory of "Guidelines for the use of green food pesticides" and is a means of production of green food.
In addition, many docomycin is used in combination with other active ingredients to compensate for the deficiency in efficacy.
Future prospect
In recent years, the application of integrated pest management methods has expanded year by year, especially in the agricultural field, the demand for green pesticides and biological pesticides has increased year by year, and the market of docomycin series products will continue to grow in the future. In addition, as more new production capacity is built and put into operation, the application of docomycin series in China will continue to rise.
Although the prospects are promising, the rapid expansion of the docomycin series market is still limited by some factors. Docidomycin and ethyl docidin developed by Dow, as well as avermectin and emamectin developed by Syngenta, are known as the "four Kings" of fermentation product insecticides, accounting for about 90% of global sales of fermentation product insecticides. The high market compatibility of abamectin and emamectin with docomycin limited the significant expansion of docomycin market. However, after the Ministry of Environmental Protection listed abamectin as "highly polluting and high-risk" in 2017, its sales are declining. Following a review by the European Union, abamectin was restricted to use only in greenhouses in 2023 due to its high risk to birds, wild mammals, aquatic invertebrates, bees, and non-target arthropods. Competition from avermectin is declining.
In addition, the production cost of the docomycin series is higher, and farmers will have higher expectations for the effect of high-priced products. However, some enterprises have made progress in overcoming the production problems, in addition to realizing the large-scale production of doxidomycin, but also to increase the proportion of more active spinosyn A in doxidomycin. Some companies also make breakthroughs in dosage forms. For example, in addition to the most common suspension agent, Miura Momokusa's docomycin also has tablets, attractants, powders, etc. The tablets consist of a quick-release layer and a slow-release layer. The quick-release layer can quickly disintegrate and release docomycin after being put into water, killing pests in the water in a short time. The slow-release layer can protect the activity and stability of docomycin in water, release docomycin slowly and for a long time, and greatly reduce the use of drugs. Therefore, the price and efficacy of docomycin are expected to further improve in the future.
Companies can also explore ways to differentiate themselves from other products through more technical research. The chemical synthesis of docomycin is difficult, so the biosynthesis using microbial fermentation is favored. However, polyspora spiculatum is difficult to culture and difficult to genetic operation. Cloning the biosynthesis pathway of docomycin and conducting heterologous expression in bacteria that are easy to genetically manipulate are important research directions for the efficient production of docomycin. On this basis, the gene family is modified to achieve the expression of highly active polycidomycin derivatives (such as butenyl polycidin) [1], which is also the research direction to improve the activity of polycidomycin products - but it is difficult to register new active ingredients. Docomycin series products will win a larger market share in the future after continuous improvement in production efficiency, cost, capacity and efficacy.
On the other hand, with the expansion of industry output, competition between enterprises will also intensify. Domestic enterprises in the expansion of the docomycin market, through the expansion of registration, the development of more joint use with pesticides, to open up the northwest, southwest of these docomycin application and less areas of the crop market, in addition to the development of flowers, veterinary drugs, stored grain pest control and other market segments. Market positioning is very important for the development of doxidomycin business.
Source: AgroPages (World Agrochemical Network)