Professor Hoi-Seon Lee (Bioenvironmental Chemistry) and team succeeded in separating and refining new biomaterial that can control mites in stored food using forget-me-not flowers (myosotis arvensis).

Stored food mites are distributed in large quantities in foods, food storages, grain storages, hay, and grain flour, causing food spoilage. They also cause allergic diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, and enteritis in food and grain handlers, which is an international problem, so the development of therapeutic drugs is in full swing. However, these treatments require a lot of time, economic cost, and side effects, so the US and Europe are focusing on the development of antiallergenic functional foods using natural substances.

The team has succeeded in separating and purifying 3-Methylbenzaldehyde from myosotis arvensis, and has developed it as a biomarker containing the function of natural acaricide (pesticide against mites) and mite kit (mite color deformation). The new biomarker is expected to be widely used for mite control and development of therapeutic agents easily because it has the function of directly identifying the stored food mites with the naked human eye.

The research was made possible with the support of the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and with the participation of Jun-Hwan Park, Na-Hyun Lee, Young-Cheol Yang, and Hoi-Seon Lee. The result was published in the July issue of Scientific Reports online. In addition, the team applied for a patent for the technique.

Prof. Lee has published 300 SCI-grade journals, 50 of which are in the top 1%. What’s remarkable is he conducted world-class research only with his own graduate students. Lee is a member of the editorial board of Nature Publishing Group, a member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, the Planning Committee chair of the Interagency Research Project for Infectious Diseases, a member of the Inter-Korea Science and Technology Committee, and the editor-in-chief of Applied Biological Chemistry and Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry.