Insecticidal Properties of Unroasted Coffee Beans

Filed in archive Food and Agriculture on March 31, 2010

© Aidan Wojtas

Scientists report that coffee beans contain proteins that can kill insects and might be developed into new insecticides for protecting food crops against destructive pests.

Peas, beans and some other plant seeds contain proteins, called globulins, which ward off insects. Unroasted coffee beans also contain large amounts of globulins, and scientists have shown that these coffee proteins also have an insecticidal effect.

Tests against cowpea weevil larva, insects used as models for studying the insecticidal activity of proteins, showed that tiny amounts of the coffee proteins quickly killed up to half of the insects. The authors of the study recently published in the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, suggest that in the future, scientists could insert genes for these insect-killing proteins into important food crops, such as grains, so that plants produce their own insecticides.

A full-text copy of the study can be downloaded here.