Biopesticides, Biotechnology and Natural Products Chemistry-ICA

The research group is focused on the optimization and biotechnological production of botanical and fungal biopesticides. This research is based on the growing need for new biopesticides motivated by food security requirements increasingly restrictive in the EU. We produce and optimize biopesticides by selectively screening plants, fungal endophytes associated with plants of interest and agricultural waste in order to improve our database and library of plant, fungal and waste based extracts of potential use in crop protection and pest control. We address the optimization of biopesticides by means of green chemistry processes on characterized extracts of plant and fungal origin already in production (artificial / biotech culture, field cultivation, fermentation) and agricultural waste and / or lead compounds