Manufacturing a sustainable and cost effective insect repellent

制造可持续且具有成本效益的驱虫剂

• 批准号: 85107
• 金额: $ 12.53万
• 依托单位: OXFORD BIOTRANS LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=85107
• 关键词: Manufacturing; sustainable; cost; effective; insect

The insect repellent field is dominated by synthetic chemical solutions that have a high environmental impact (such as DEET). Many natural compounds have been shown to be active in this arena, but typically are challenging to produce economically at scale, and/or do not have the same efficacy.One natural compound is nootkatone, the scent and flavour of grapefruit, which has recently been registered by the EPA as an active repellent of mosquitoes, ticks and bedbugs (July 2020). Nootkatone is a natural, food-safe compound currently used in the flavour and fragrance industry, and which as a repellent would have a low impact on the environment. The challenge with using this compound in this market is its high price and relative supply scarcity; even synthetic nootkatone, produced via a process with high environmental impact is priced at $2,000/kg, while natural nootkatone is \>$3,000/kg, and less than 20 tonnes/year are produced.Oxford Biotrans has developed a novel biotechnological production route to this natural compound and is currently selling it competitively as a flavour and fragrance ingredient. However, it is now looking to reduce production costs to enable deployment of nootkatone as a low-impact, sustainable, natural insect repellent for fighting disease and agricultural vectors.

驱虫剂领域主要是对环境有很大影响的合成化学溶液（如避蚊胺）。许多天然化合物已被证明在这一竞技场中具有活性，但通常难以大规模经济地生产，和/或不具有相同的功效。一种天然化合物是诺卡酮，葡萄柚的香味和风味，最近已被EPA注册为蚊子，蜱和臭虫的活性驱虫剂（2020年7月）。诺卡酮是一种天然的食品安全化合物，目前用于调味品和香料行业，作为驱避剂对环境的影响很小。在这个市场上使用这种化合物的挑战是其价格高和供应相对稀缺;甚至通过对环境影响大的方法生产的合成诺卡酮的价格也为2,000美元/公斤，而天然诺卡酮的价格为3,000美元/公斤，低于20吨/Oxford Biotrans已经开发出一种新的生物技术生产路线，这种天然化合物，目前正在出售它作为竞争力，风味和香味成分。然而，它现在正在寻求降低生产成本，以便将诺卡酮作为一种低影响，可持续的天然驱虫剂用于对抗疾病和农业病媒。