NOF to submit pollen-curbing agrochemical for registration

NOF Corp. plans to submit during this fiscal year to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ Food and Agricultural Materials Inspection Center its agricultural chemical that can curb cedar-pollen production and holds promise as a fundamental measure to combat hay fever. Anticipating registration in 3-4 years, it will continue to develop other high-potential applications such as Japanese cypress.

The Tokyo-based company collaborated with Associate Prof. Kaihei Koshio of the Tokyo University of Agriculture to develop the plant-growth regulator, whose active ingredients are natural fatty-acid derivatives.

The chemical, diluted some 20 times with water, is dispersed using a high-pressure applicator from the ground once a year during summer to early fall, when meristem differentiation into male cedar flowers takes place, limiting pollen generation the following spring. It affects only the male cedar flowers, not the female flowers, and its exact action mechanism is as yet unknown but is believed to involve apoptosis when the chemical is applied. As the chemical entails neither the suppression of plant hormones nor the inhibition of flower-bud formation, it’s thought to be innocuous to the growth of the cedar trees. It has also been proved to be safe to humans, animals, and rice and other plants.

According to the ministry’s estimates, some 95,000 ha of about 4.5mn ha of total cedar plantation nationwide have an extremely strong influence on hay-fever occurrence while 170,000 ha have a strong influence. About one out of every five persons in Japan suffers from cedar-pollen allergy, which expands medical bills for the government and deteriorates labor productivity.