Editorials
ILSA, by using supercritical CO2, extracts concentrates with high triacontanol content from Fabaceae
The global market of biostimulants producers, farmers and the environment will benefit from it.
12/09/2016
ILSA, an Italian producer of nitrogen organic fertilisers and special products for plant biostimulation, has celebrated the first quintal of triacontanol concentrate extracted from Fabaceae and produced through the new extraction plant with supercritical CO2. ILSA, the only company in the world using this technology in agriculture, uses triacontanol as a basis for producing its biostimulants for crops. A vast scientific literature and almost fifteen years of experiments by the company’s research centre are proof of the effectiveness of this plant-derived molecule.
This goal is shared by the company with its scientific partners, first of all the DAFNAE department of the University of Padua (Department of Agronomy, Animals, Food, Natural Resources and Environment).
Public support is also strategic, having ensured funds for almost 8 million euros in the last ten years, received for very innovative research projects aiming at obtaining bioactive plant molecules capable of making plants stronger and more resistant, while fully respecting the environment and man’s health. Thanks to the supercritical CO2 technology, today the company can obtain a triacontanol concentrate of natural origin (therefore not synthetic) that was unthinkable until yesterday. This will allow for development also in the industrial market of biostimulants producers. Biostimulants, as opposed to fertilisers or agrochemicals, act against the abiotic stress of plants helping the latter become stronger.
ILSA started with Ilsac-on, which entered the official list - under Italian regulations - of biostimulants with a specific action on plants, and, in January 2016, launched 20 new triacontanol-based products that are part of the Viridem® programme, which puts together all research efforts to produce plant-derived biostimulants. There is plenty of evidence of the greater quality achieved by crops already treated with the Viridem® products. To name just a few: cracking reduction in cherries, root elongation in lettuces, increased shelf-life in peaches and salinity resistance.
“Our products are designed having in mind the individual needs of specific crops, even at different latitudes - explains the ILSA chairman, Paolo Girelli -; we work in 35 countries worldwide and our bridgeheads in each market are the universities which we enter into partnership agreements with to test the effectiveness of our products, before placing them in their respective markets and environments. The supercritical CO2 technology allows us extracting very pure bioactive molecules capable of preventing and contrasting damage caused by stress situations that, increasingly, affect crops.” This will ensure greater income for farmers, while respecting the environment, and increased crop production for the same cultivated land.
