The Magic Molecule Co. Story – from the CEO

October 21, 2021 3 min read

The Magic Molecule Co. Story –  from the CEO

Ever wondered who started the Magic Molecule Company and why? Here’s the lowdown from Richard Salvage, our CEO, on how biostimulants have an emerging importance in securing our future food supply.

Why is the Magic Molecule Co. researching and developing products in this area?

There is an urgent need to increase food supply at the same time as taking a more environmentally friendly approach to producing it. Additionally, soil quality has diminished globally and there is an environmental need to reduce the use of synthetic fertiliser and agrochemical usage. Plant biostimulants offer an exciting addition and in some cases alternative treatment to achieve both these aims. We started developing biostimulants for agriculture through our company Maxstim. The science and learning we have developed from Maxstim has informed all of the products for the Magic Molecule Company.

How can the Magic Molecule Co. contribute?

Single source biostimulants have been available for some time – seaweed for example - but the advent of new multi-sourced complex formulations offer more effective improvements to a number of key metabolic processes in plants, increasing yield, quality and an increased resistance to abiotic and biotic stressors. Understanding how these latest biostimulants impact plant growth and health is important in realising their full potential and improving the future product design.

Using different combinations of compounds can produce synergistic effects making the complex formulations highly bioactive. Using low volumes and inexpensive material to create significant yield and quality improvements is important if we are to achieve an increased food supply on a large scale. Bioflavonoids and polyphenols have proved to be rich sources of highly bioactive molecules and their use in some of these complex biostimulants enhances their efficacy. There are a number of exotic plant sources which have very useful bioflavonoids. We investigate these to determine whether they should be included in our complex formulations.

In fact we are constantly examining and testing complex biostimulant formulations to help us better understand their impact and to enable us to continue to make improvements in yield, quality and resistance to abiotic and biotic stressed. Complex biostimulants create a wide range of desirable phenotypical changes. By studying how they relate to the different genotypes and differing gene expression within a plant’s physiology enables us to choose the best formulations for sustainability and protecting future global food supply.

What are your goals for the Magic Molecule Co.?

  • To create highly effective biostimulants that positively influence key phenotypes that impact yield, quality and stress resistance in plants.
  • To understand how these bioactive compounds work and what their modes of action are, to be able to explain to farmers, home growers and agricultural organisations why they should consider using them in addition to or instead of the current practices.
  • To identify, extract and investigate highly bioactive bioflavonoids and polyphenols and explore their use in complex biostimulant formulations.

The Magic Molecule Co. and our sister company Maxstim are offering a proven, but different approach to the rest of the biostimulant providers.

We recognised early on that credibility is everything. This credibility comes from well-presented and high quality data sets, strong references and testimonials and seriously addressing potential compliance regulations.

We have unique technology and we try to explain the difference between the early single sourced biostimulant formulations and the better synergistic, complex multi-sourced biostimulant technology. Our ongoing, ambitious research and development programme is identifying new highly bioactive molecules which are improving the efficacy of new formulations. Most importantly we are trying to understand and explain how our ‘Magic Molecules’ impact the key metabolic processes and plant physiology. Understanding the effect of our products is another part of the credibility package that we are building.

We are intent on keeping this platform progressive with the introduction of new concepts, technology and innovative products. There is a real opportunity for biostimulants with the changes that are happening in the agriculture sector and the demand for a fundamentally different approach to the environment. And we are very excited to be a part of it and dare I say, pioneers.