GO NATURSMOKE

New disinfectant technologies based on active ingredients obtained from food by-products to control phytopathogens in the greenhouse and post-harvest

What is an Operational Group?

An Operational Group (OG) is a group of actors with different profiles, such as farmers, researchers, universities, etc. to be able to jointly address a specific problem or opportunity from a multi-sector approach.

NATURSMOKE Operational Group

The objective of the GO-NATURSMOKE project is the development of new fumigation products that, with minimal water consumption, contribute to the efficient control of phytopathogenic diseases in the greenhouse and post-harvest using active ingredients of natural origin from food by-products. This new technology will use antimicrobials of natural origin, safe for consumers and the environment, allowing the use of chemicals, water and energy to be reduced, while maintaining the levels of quality and safety of the final product that the market demands.

Goals

• Investigate, characterize and obtain, through innovative sustainable extraction processes, new extracts obtained from food by-products rich in active ingredients with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity for the control of diseases caused by phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria such as Botrytis cinerea, Podosphaera aphanis, Leveillula taurica, Pseudomonas syringae, Alternaria spp., Penicillium spp. and Fusarium oxysporum, among others.
• Obtain standardized formulations in bioactive principles of natural origin for incorporation in fumigens intended for the control of phytopathogens in vegetables and fruit trees grown in greenhouses, allowing the reduction of water consumption and improving the microbiological quality of this cultivation system and post-harvest facilities.
• Integrate the active ingredients into a smoke-producing product, guaranteeing its correct functioning without interactions between the chemical groups, leading to the release of the active ingredients in dry smoke with adequate speed and smoke density without the presence of a flame.
• Implement a system to study the activity of selected formulations on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a surrogate animal model, evaluating its effect on longevity and other health parameters (oxidative stress, in vivo expression analysis) allowing the toxicity of these compounds to be evaluated. in vivo.
• Determine the biological activity and mechanism of action of the products developed against fungi and bacteria, through in vitro assays, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force and gene expression studies.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the products developed through the implementation and development of new methodologies and validation tests in the laboratory, semi-field and field.

Components

The NATURSMOKE Operational Group is composed of 5 entities:

Informative material

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