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Ethephon is a plant growth regulator.
Ethephon often used on wheat, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and rice in order to help the plant's fruit reach ripeness more quickly.
Cotton is the most important single crop use for ethephon. It initiates fruiting over a period of several weeks, promotes early concentrated boll opening, and enhances defoliation to facilitate and improve efficiency of scheduled harvesting. Harvested cotton quality is improved.
Ethephon also is widely used by pineapple growers to initiate reproductive development (force) of pineapple. Ethephon is also sprayed on mature-green pineapple fruits to degreen them to meet produce marketing requirements. There can be some detrimental effect on fruit quality.
The toxicity of ethephon is very low, and any ethephon used on the plant is converted very quickly to ethylene."1994 Joint meeting of the FAO panel of experts on pesticide residues in food and the environment." UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 1994.
The use of this chemical is allowed in the European Union.
Mechanism of action
Upon metabolism by the plant, it is converted intoethylene
Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula or . It is a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds).
Ethylene i ...
, a potent regulator of plant growth and ripeness. It is also a butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor
Inhibitor or inhibition may refer to:
In biology
* Enzyme inhibitor, a substance that binds to an enzyme and decreases the enzyme's activity
* Reuptake inhibitor, a substance that increases neurotransmission by blocking the reuptake of a neurotra ...
.
Uses in various crops
Ethephon often used on wheat, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and rice in order to help the plant's fruit reach ripeness more quickly.
Cotton is the most important single crop use for ethephon. It initiates fruiting over a period of several weeks, promotes early concentrated boll opening, and enhances defoliation to facilitate and improve efficiency of scheduled harvesting. Harvested cotton quality is improved.
Ethephon also is widely used by pineapple growers to initiate reproductive development (force) of pineapple. Ethephon is also sprayed on mature-green pineapple fruits to degreen them to meet produce marketing requirements. There can be some detrimental effect on fruit quality.
The toxicity of ethephon is very low, and any ethephon used on the plant is converted very quickly to ethylene."1994 Joint meeting of the FAO panel of experts on pesticide residues in food and the environment." UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 1994.
The use of this chemical is allowed in the European Union.
References
{{reflist Phosphonic acids Organochlorides Chloroethyl compounds