Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty member's Research results obtained patent for drug developed to protect olive trees from pests

Professor Atsushi Mitsumoto (left) and Associate Professor Yamazaki Lab.

Incorporated Educational Institution Josai University, which manages the university, has obtained a patent for a chemical that protects olive trees from insects that cause feeding damage. The inventors, Professor Atsushi Mitsumoto and Associate Professor Yamazaki Laboratory of the Faculty Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, have developed a behavior observation device for the olive weevil and clarified that several types of natural products exhibit a repellent effect. I've arrived.

Togane City in Chiba prefecture, where our main campus is located, has been developing an initiative to make olives a specialty product for about 10 years. The university has also collaborated with the city beyond the boundaries of the faculty, for example, receiving seedlings from the city and growing about 100 olive trees on campus, students helping farmers harvest the olives, and students designing the packaging for Togane-grown olive oil. Olives have also played a role in the university's contribution to the local community by donating crowns made from olive leaves to municipal elementary school marathons, compiling leaflets on the health benefits of olives and distributing them to municipal elementary and junior high schools for nutrition education, and offering a "Familiarity with Olives" course for local citizens. Olive trees also play a role in the university's contribution to the local community.

Professor Mitsumoto and his team are presiding over these olive-related activities at our university as the "Olive Production Area Support Project," and as part of this project, they began to seriously tackle olive component analysis in 2020. As a result, they learned from city officials and producers that damage caused by an insect endemic to Japan called the olive weevil is a major factor hindering the growth of olives in Japan. Through literature research and field surveys, Professor Mitsumoto and his team felt that there was a lack of countermeasures to this problem, so they carried out their own Research and discovered that several environmentally friendly natural products have a repellent effect against this insect.

It is expected that the commercialization of this chemical, which can greatly reduce the labor required for cultivation management, will greatly advance olive cultivation in Togane City and Japan.

[Overview of the patent]
The patents acquired this time are as follows.
・Patent number: Patent No. 7312488
・Patent registration date: July 12, 2023
・Title of invention: "Repellent agent for olive weevil and method for using the repellent agent"
・Patent holder: Incorporated Educational Institution Josai University
・Inventor: Atsushi Mitsumoto, Yamazaki Laboratory