Potato sprout suppression in storage with spearmint oil (carvone), orange oil, ethylene and cold storage — instead of chlorpropham (CIPC)

Replaces: chlorpropham (CIPC) fogging of stored potatoes · Products: potatoes · Evidence: high

The chemical problem#

For about 60 years CIPC was fogged into potato stores worldwide (and still is in many countries, including CIS markets). Its residues were among the most common pesticide residues in EU food. The EU did not renew CIPC in 2019 (Regulation (EU) 2019/989) because consumer safety could not be demonstrated, partly because of the metabolite 3-chloroaniline. CIPC also soaks into store walls and contaminates later untreated potatoes for years.

Product overview#

Natural and bio-based sprout suppressants now used commercially in the EU and North America:

1. Spearmint oil (R-carvone): e.g. Biox-M (Juno/Netherlands), and Talent (carvone). Fogged or evaporated; it damages sprout tips. Carvone was researched at Wageningen in the 1990s.
2. Orange oil (limonene-based): e.g. Argos, burns off sprout tips.
3. Ethylene (continuous low-level gassing, e.g. Restrain generators, which produce ethylene from ethanol, potentially bio-ethanol): inhibits sprout elongation; widely used for processing and fresh potatoes in the UK.
4. Cold storage + low-dormancy management + variety choice (long-dormancy varieties).
5. Also 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene (1,4-DMN, 1,4SIGHT; a compound naturally found in potato tubers) and 3-decen-2-one (SmartBlock). These are nature-identical compounds, but industrially synthesized.

Active ingredient / Composition#

• Spearmint oil (R-carvone, ≥ about 60 %).
• Orange terpenes (d-limonene).
• Ethylene (from ethanol through a catalytic converter).

Key facts#

Advantages#

• No CIPC residues or 3-chloroaniline.
• Consistent with organic storage (depending on the product and certification).
• Carvone also has antifungal effects (less storage rot).

Mode of action#

• Carvone and limonene: damage the meristem cells at sprout tips (membrane disruption); repeated applications prevent regrowth.
• Ethylene: at continuous exposure, inhibits sprout elongation (short, thick sprouts). Note: it can increase sugars (fry colour), so manage variety and temperature.

Application#

Limitations#

• More expensive than CIPC; repeated applications are needed.
• Ethylene can darken fry colour in some varieties.
• Oils need well-sealed stores and correct fogging equipment.

Evidence of displacement — D1: works, adoption not proven#

Verified figures (the number is in the quoted sentence and the sentence is on the source page):

• displacement — In 2016, CIPC accounted for 82% of treatments to stored potatoes in the UK, while ethylene and spearmint oil accounted for 15% and 3%, respectively. (UK, 2016; weak: archive.ahdb.org.uk)
• driver — The EU and Switzerland banned the use of CIPC due to concerns over its toxicological profile and inability to demonstrate consumer safety. (—, 2020; weak: agrarforschungschweiz.ch)

Suppliers — real products and services (from the vendor index)#

Honest finding: the vendor index has no dedicated spearmint/orange-oil sprout suppressant. This is recorded as a supplier gap — the companies below are the closest capabilities.

Companies below are active vendors in the vendor index whose own card (profile / official website) shows this product or service — matched 2026-09-28 by keyword and checked by hand against the card text. Being listed is not an endorsement; open each card for evidence, contacts and status.

Update 2026-10-05: the new Europe dataset supplies this product — rows marked Europe below. For the other regions the gap noted above still stands unless a row says otherwise.

Government funding signals#

Public grants for a specific technology are a leading indicator: governments fund what regulators want to replace and what is close to practical adoption. Searched on 2026-09-27 in: EU CORDIS (FP7, Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe), US federal awards (USAspending: USDA NIFA/ARS/APHIS/Forest Service, EPA, DOE, NOAA, USAID; plus NSF and NIH), UK UKRI Gateway to Research, Australian Research Council. Each grant below was reviewed by hand for relevance. China, Brazil and India are covered in the subsection below (publication-acknowledged grants). Not covered: Russia (RSF, FASIE — not reachable from the research environment) and national agencies outside these databases. Amounts are the funder’s contribution as recorded (US NIH/UKRI: per award or fiscal year).

Signal: Strong. 4 relevant grant(s) · about €3.4M in total · jurisdictions: UK, USA.

China, Brazil, India — national research grants acknowledged in publications#

Chinese, Brazilian and Indian funders have no open grant databases reachable here, so this measures scientific papers published since 2015 that acknowledge national government grants, taken from the grant numbers publishers deposit with Crossref. Only papers whose title contains this article’s key terms are counted (a conservative lower bound; “100+” = search window full). It shows research-funding intensity, not budgets. Funders: China — NSFC, National Key R&D Program, China Agriculture Research System; Brazil — CNPq, CAPES, FAPESP, Embrapa, FAPEMIG; India — DBT, DST, ICAR, SERB, CSIR, BIRAC. Rating per country: Strong ≥50 papers · Moderate 10–49 · Weak 1–9.

Scientific evidence#

• Hartmans KJ, Diepenhorst P, Bakker W, Gorris LGM (1995). The use of carvone in agriculture: sprout suppression of potatoes and antifungal activity against potato tuber and other plant diseases. Industrial Crops and Products 4: 3–13.
• Paul V, Ezekiel R, Pandey R (2016). Sprout suppression on potato: need to look beyond CIPC for more effective and safer alternatives. Journal of Food Science and Technology 53: 1–18.
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/989 — non-renewal of approval of the active substance chlorpropham.

Bioeconomy value#

Mint and citrus processing byproducts, and ethylene that can be made from bio-ethanol, replace a synthetic carbamate. This is a plant-derived value chain for storage.