Innovation Case: Effeeda
Effeeda (active ingredient name: fenquinotrione) is a versatile rice herbicide that is both effective and safe. It is highly effective against a wide variety of weeds, including herbicide resistant weeds and hard-to-control broadleaf weeds, and demonstrates extreme safety for paddy rice.
In starting the creation research, we set our research goal as "compatibility of resistance control with broad-spectrum herbicidal effects and crop safety for rice" and started structural transformation focusing on the chemical structure of 4-HPPD inhibitors. Through dedicated and uncompromising structural transformation and biological evaluation, we have created Effeeda, which is both highly effective in weed control and safe for paddy rice at an extremely high level.
Effeeda not only shows outstanding herbicidal effects on annual broadleaf weeds and perennial difficult-to-control weeds such as Japanese bulrush, oval-leafed pondweed, prostrate false pimpernel, heartleaf false pickerelweed, and threeleaf arrowhead, which are problematic in rice cultivation, but also shows high efficacy against weeds resistant to existing products because of its different action from conventional pesticides, making it applicable as a key ingredient for one-shot treatment herbicides and for resistance control.
While the use of conventional products has been restricted due to the strong injury they cause to some rice varieties, such as forage rice, Effeeda is specifically degraded by metabolic enzymes commonly possessed by rice, and can be used regardless of the rice variety. The high level of rice safety has made Effeeda a revolutionary rice herbicide that can be applied in a variety of ways, regardless of rice variety, time of use, or formulation.
Effeeda is now used as a key ingredient in many companies' rice herbicides. Taking advantage of its broad and stable herbicidal effects and high rice safety, we have also commercialized labor-saving formulations such as MAMETSUBU and Jumbo formulations to provide technology that supports diversified cultivation systems, such as aging farmers and cultivation at a larger scale.
In 2022, we received the Society Award (on prominent achievement) from the Pesticide Science Society of Japan for the development of a rice herbicide, fenquinotrione.
