Ethephon エテホン
Plant growth regulators: Gibberellin (for seedless grapes), ethephon (to speed up ripening) and others.
In Japan
- Registration
- Registered as a pesticide (first registered March 15, 1972). 3 formulated products contain it.
- Main registered crops
- persimmon, Japanese pear, European pear, cherry, grape, tomato and others (24 crop names in the registered uses)
- Toxicity class
- Active ingredient: Ordinary substanceClasses of the 3 formulated products (diluted products sold): ordinary substance 3Classes under Japan's Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act.
- ADI (acceptable daily intake)
- No risk assessment report by the Food Safety Commission of Japan was found
ADI: the amount considered to have no effect on health even if eaten every day for a lifetime. ARfD: the amount considered to have no effect on health when eaten at one time (within 24 hours). Both are set by the Food Safety Commission of Japan, mainly from animal studies.
In Japan's national residue testing (fiscal 2024)
| Produce | Detected / tested | Detection rate | Over the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imported | 0 / 9 | 0.0% | 0 |
Tests are counted as pesticide × sample. Any detection counts as “detected” — it does not mean the limit was exceeded. For pesticides outside the top 20, figures are summed from the food-by-food tables of the full report.
Evaluations abroad
- WHO acute toxicity class
- III (Slightly hazardous), LD50 >4000 mg/kgBased on the toxicity of the undiluted active ingredient given once, mainly to rats by mouth (LD50 = the dose that kills half; the smaller, the stronger the acute toxicity). It is not an assessment of the safety of residues in food.
- EU
- Approved in the EU (approval expires January 2039)EU ADI: 0.02 mg/kg bw/day; ARfD: 0.05 mg/kg bw
- IARC (carcinogenicity)
- No matching entry in the IARC list (not evaluated or out of scope, including Group 3)
Related explainers
Sources
- FAMIC (Food and Agricultural Materials Inspection Center), pesticide registration information (as of Sept. 30, 2026) (Japanese)
- MHLW, results of pesticide residue testing in foods, fiscal 2024 (Japanese)
- WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard 2019
- EU Pesticides Database (Ethephon)
Last checked 2026-10-01. Registrations and evaluations change over time. This page is a translation of our Japanese page; if they differ, the Japanese page is the reference.