The kakawate is about to get an upgrade.
The kakawate or madre de cacao plant is about to get a patent as an effective and safe insecticide, the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) announced July 8.
The invention patent covers the use of organic compounds from the plant Gliricidia sepium as an insecticide.
The patent was first applied with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) six years ago.
The kakawate compounds can be used to repel insect and reduce the expulsion of insect eggs in the field during mating season, according to the IPOPHL patent database.
The use of organic chemical compounds from plants in pest management can help reduce the use of synthetic insecticides which, when misused and overused, are potentially harmful to health and to the environment.
The natural kakawate insecticide promotes crop growth and repels the spread of insect diseases.
The patent is an off-shoot of the project, “Volatile organic chemical profile of eggplant (Solanum melongena), tagbak (Kolowratia elegans), and kakawate (Gliricidia sepium) with implications to pest management of selected major pests of rice, eggplant and tomato,” which started in 2012 with NRCP funding.
The study was led by Dr. Susan May Calumpang of NRCP and the College of Agriculture and Food Science (formerly College of Agriculture), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), with colleagues Dr. Mario Navasero and Dr. Marcela Navasero as co-researchers.
The three are now considered as the inventors of the kakawate insecticide.
Because it funded the research, the NRCP will own the patent.
The UPLB study looked at the volatile organic chemical profile of various eggplant varieties with varying susceptibilities to the eggplant fruit shoot borer. The study looked at how the presence of these chemicals affected the borer, a major insect pest.
The study also determined the volatile organic chemical profile of tagbak and kakawate to validate farmer knowledge on the usefulness of these plants in insect pest management in rice and tomato production.
The pioneering UPLB study which led to the patent application demonstrated that female green leafhoppers were repelled by the odors released from the leaf discs of kakawate.
Kakawate planted along rice fields can be promoted for insect pest management in rice production to promote sustainability and reduce dependence on synthetic insecticides, the study concluded.
By experimentation and observation farmers have long used natural insecticides. Farmers in Infanta, Quezon use the stalks of tagbak staked into the rice paddies to control rice
insect pests.
Farmer observations have shown the lower incidence of corn borer infestation in cornfields with Ipomoea triloba, a weed closely associated with corn. The chemical basis for this phenomenon was due to the presence of a repellent compound when corn was entwined by the weed.
In the Philippines, kakawate is usually found along rice paddies. Some farmers believe that it can reduce rice insect pests in their fields.
Live kakawate as posts of trellises are also used in tomato in Laguna and in string bean production in Batangas where farmers claim they encountered lower pest infestations.
During the dry season, when much of the forage is gone, the limbs of the kakawate tree are cut and the foliage is offered to livestock.
