Surging northern hemisphere demand for bio-pesticides has set a promising scene for a eucalyptus oil product capable of tackling weevils, mosquitoes, ticks, lice and horticultural crop pests.
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Melbourne-based Bio-Gene Technology expects to have the first variation of its new environmentally-friendly insecticide, Flavocide, ready for assessment by the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority next year.
A second organic, non-synthetic product should follow within three years.
For the past nine years Bio-Gene has been trialling selected varieties of the relatively rare Eucalyptus cloeziana species, or the Gympie messmate tree, grown on a plantation near Dimbulah on North Queensland's Atherton Tableland.
The gum leaf harvest is distilled to produce Qcide oil containing high levels of the potent active constituent, tasmanone.
Based on likely local and international demand for Qcide, the company is now looking to expand its supply sources, scouting for potential growers as far south as the NSW Mid North Coast.
Tea tree farmers are among those likely to show interest in the crop as cloeziana is grown, harvested and processed for its oil in much the same way as the famous medicinal melaleuca plant.
With existing pest chemical product treatments encountering increasing resistance from problem insects, and consumer resistance because of toxicity concerns, Qcide's totally new mode of action could make it highly valued in global environmental management and agricultural markets.
The ASX-listed Bio-Gene research and development business has been signing up partnerships with European, US and Israeli companies and has worked on stored grain research with the Grain Research and Development.
Mosquitoes are likely to be one of its first targets, initially in the US, but also in Africa and Asia, where rapidly increasing problems with malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and zika virus, plus mosquito resistance to mainstream chemicals, are causing global unease.
"Insect control isn't exactly a high profile commercial discussion topic, but we've been generating considerable interest, particularly from people who know what's at stake," said Bio-Gene managing director, Tim Grogan.
While mosquito-transmitted diseases were troublesome enough in Australia where debilitating illnesses such as Ross River fever and recent outbreaks of Japanese encephalitis have left their mark, they kill huge numbers of people annually overseas, and including in first world countries.
Malaria alone was responsible for more than 600,000 deaths each year, and in 2022 the World Health Organisation estimated global malaria cases jumped by about 5 million to about 250m.
"The mosquito is just about the worst creature that ever lived," Mr Grogan said.
"As climate conditions change and insect migration spreads further, diseases like malaria are now big problems from Singapore to Florida."
With help from research partners at CSIRO, Bio-Gene developed Flavocide as a synthetic variation of Qcide, providing a fresh mode of pest control action to fight mosquitoes and a host of human health and agricultural pests.
Trials to date proved it to be lethal against numerous pest insects, lice, mites and spiders, but not mammals, birds, reptiles or bees.
Eco-toxicity assessments also suggested it had a much lower impact in aquatic environments than equivalent conventional products, even in high application concentrations.
Mr Grogan said the development, trial and commercial registration process took time, which meant Bio-Gene had to be careful with its capital, and manage expectations.
However, it was heartening to be getting support from investors keen to develop its botanical pest control products in their markets.
Commercial partners to date included Israeli company and prominent global player in tea tree oil and crop protection market, STK Bio-Ag Technologies; US public health business, Clarke Mosquito Control, and the big local and European consumer market player, Evergreen Garden Care (formerly part of Scotts' pest product empire).
"The Europeans are clearly early movers in adopting natural chemical options to existing synthetic lines, but there's an increasing profile in the US, too," he said.
"We're pleased to be doing our bit to provide innovation to the industry."
Back on the farm in tropical Queensland, Bio-Gene's gum tree trials found it could be grown intensively as an irrigated row crop in well drained soils, producing about 80 tonnes of biomass every nine months.
The selected tree species used by Bio-Gene yielded between 50 kilograms and 60kg of oil from each tonne of leaf.
Trees are coppiced and harvested at three metres, leaving a 45 centimetre stump which regrows swiftly to harvestable height in less than a year.
Mr Grogan believed a recent lull in international tea tree oil prices presented Gympie messmate as an attractive diversification opportunity for those already involved in the essential oil market.
"It's a great adjunct to the expertise we already have in Australia around essential oils like melaleuca," he said.
"These trees could be farmed elsewhere around the world, but I think Australia, on the back of our experience, can be a significant sustainable performer in this fast emerging natural chemical market."
Qcide's botanical chemical qualities were first identified at Western Sydney University's Hawkesbury campus more than a decade ago by Associate Professor Robert Spooner-Hart and Dr Albert Basta working with samples from northern NSW.
They teamed up with Perth-based natural technologies company, BioProspect, to develop Qcide as a potential treatment for household and agricultural pests.
WSU and BioProspect registered patents and the Qcide trademark before commercial research and marketing was taken over by Bio-Gene.
Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
