Analysis of the Mechanism of Action and Development Prospects of Humic Acid
Humic acid is a class of macromolecular compounds with complex composition, divided into three fractions according to their solubility in different solvents, namely fulvic acid, brown humic acid, and black humic acid. Humic acid is widely present in nature in lignite, weathered coal, and peat, with content reaching 30%-70%. In the 1970s, China set off a wave of research and application of humic acid substances, mainly to address the shortage of agricultural fertilizer at that time. Humic acid has biological activity and special structural properties, and plays a unique role in plant growth. The organic acid substances provided by humic acid in natural coal are called MFA, while the humic acid-like substances produced by the biochemical method we pioneered are called BFA (Biotechnolosy Fulvic scicl). This environmentally friendly green technology provides a larger platform for the application and development of humic acid products. At present, humic acid substances have been applied in agriculture and forestry, medical and health care, petroleum, building materials, environmental protection, pesticides, fertilizers, and other industries. Especially with the strengthening of people's environmental awareness and the prevalence of green health food, humic acid will play an important and unique role in solving this problem and providing these edible substances. As a result, humic acid will have a broader market space and will also promote the faster development of this product and industry.
????The Biological Activity Mechanism of Humic Acid
The main elemental composition of humic acid is carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. It is a polycondensate of polyvalent phenolic aromatic compounds and nitrogen compounds. The molecular weight distribution is relatively wide, with small molecules having molecular weights of tens of thousands, and large molecules reaching tens of thousands to several million. The structural composition is also quite complex, containing phenolic hydroxyl, hydroxyl, alcoholic hydroxyl, quinone hydroxyl, enol group, sulfonic acid group, amine group, free quinone group, semiquinone group, quinone oxygen group, methoxy group, and various other functional groups. The various components are intertwined through chemical and physical interactions such as bonding, hydrogen bonding, and adsorption. The existence of these active groups determines the acidity, hydrophilicity, ion exchange capacity, complexing ability, and relatively high adsorption capacity, buffering, and catalytic ability of humic acid. Adding humic acid to feed can effectively adsorb various toxic and harmful substances produced by feed during storage, and can also adsorb toxic substances produced by digestion and metabolism during the digestive and metabolic processes, such as amines, hydrogen sulfide, and other substances, maintaining the normal intestinal microflora.
When added to feed, humic acid can also act as a medicine, with significant therapeutic effects on intestinal ulcers and gastritis. Because humic acid contains small-molecule fulvic acid, it can adhere to the surface of ulcers, quickly stop bleeding, and facilitate rapid tissue healing. Humic acid has an immune-enhancing effect on animals, promoting antigen uptake, cellular immunity, and humoral immunity at all stages of the immune process.
Humic acid contains quinone groups that can participate in the body's redox reactions, maintain vigorous metabolism, and promote cell proliferation. Humic acid can also act on the plant nervous system, inhibiting sympathetic nerve excitation, making animals calm and reducing consumption. In addition, because humic acid is an organic acid, it can regulate the pH value of the digestive tract, promote the secretion of digestive enzymes in young animals, activate the activity of various enzymes in the body, change the permeability of cell membranes, improve the absorption of feed nutrients, improve feed utilization, and promote growth and development. As for biochemical fulvic acid, it not only contains humic acid but also contains a certain amount of nucleic acids, amino acids, VB, VC, inositol, and polysaccharides. In addition to having strong biological activity, it is also an important nutrient for animals. In summary, according to clinical evidence, humic acid has hemostatic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, astringent, adsorptive, anti-allergic, and secretion-promoting effects, regulates gastrointestinal function, improves body immunity, and enhances animals' disease resistance.
At present, some feed manufacturers, in order to cater to the consumption psychology of farmers, increase animal growth, and pursue feed effectiveness, add large amounts of antibiotic drugs to feed. Due to the residues of antibiotic drugs, this directly affects people's health. As a green and environmentally friendly product, humic acid can completely be added to feed to replace antibiotic drugs. Scientific research in recent years has shown that humic acid, as a new type of feed additive, has unique effects and plays a very important role in breeding, and will certainly promote the development of the feed industry.
The Development Prospects of Humic Acid
The use of humic acid in aquaculture is still rarely reported domestically. As a natural active substance, it can replace antibiotics within a certain range and be used as a disease prevention agent. The development of humic acid has broad market prospects. Problems existing in the humic acid industry: such as small production scale, relatively backward technology, unstable quality, weak technical strength of various enterprises, and insufficient development and application research, thus restricting the development of this industry. The unique effects of humic acid and its mechanism are still not well understood and await further research, in order to enhance the broader application space and application value of humic acid. Chen Qining