Technology & quality
CHON Chemical is a chemical-synthesis service company in Bangkok, Thailand. We synthesise molecules in a closed system, capture them in a form people can use, and check what we make: structure by NMR, content by GC-MS.
The method was built on 1-MCP (1-methylcyclopropene), the molecule inside FreshTrap. We are a 1-MCP manufacturer in Thailand: the molecule is synthesised and verified here. The same method is what we bring to custom synthesis and to the molecules we are developing next.
Structure · NMR
Content · GC-MS
In short
The method in six steps, from the molecule on paper to a monitored trial.
Start from what it must do, then plan how to build it and how to check it.
Controlled conditions, to limit by-products.
Held in α-cyclodextrin powder, and released again by moisture.
Structure confirmed by NMR, content measured by GC-MS.
Format and concentration tailored to the container size and the journey time.
Side by side: same crop, same storage, same day.
Intellectual property: a Thai petty-patent application for the production process, filed on 22 January 2025.
01 · Synthesis
We synthesise active compounds in a closed system, under controlled conditions, to limit by-products.
Working closed is what lets us control what we make, and measure it afterwards. It is how the 1-MCP in FreshTrap is made, here in Thailand.
What we do not publish: the process conditions, the apparatus and the starting materials. They are company know-how, which is why this page describes the method in outline.
02 · Encapsulation
1-MCP is a gas, and a gas cannot be packed into a sachet. So we hold it inside α-cyclodextrin, a ring of six sugar units, as a dry powder that releases it when moistened.
The gas is drawn into α-cyclodextrin powder inside the closed system.
The 1-MCP sits inside the ring, forming what chemists call an inclusion complex: a solid that can be weighed, diluted and packed like any powder.
Moisture frees the gas again. For FreshTrap, misting the sachet with water starts the release; the carton, cold room or container is then sealed.
The powder is made with our proprietary stabilising formulation, which stays company know-how.
Once released, 1-MCP binds the plant's ethylene receptor about 10 times more strongly than ethylene itself (Blankenship & Dole 2003). It delays ripening rather than stopping it; plants gradually form new receptors (Hu et al. 2017). The full explainer is on what 1-MCP is.
03 · Verification
Every batch: structure confirmed by NMR, content measured by GC-MS.
¹H NMR · chemical shift (ppm)
Structure · NMR
NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) confirms the structure: that the compound in the batch is the one intended. The spectrum shown comes from our own work on 1-MCP held in α-cyclodextrin, the structure drawn at top left.
Illustration, not measured data
Content · GC-MS
GC-MS (gas chromatography–mass spectrometry) measures the content, so the amount of the molecule in a batch is measured, not assumed.
Documents: A certificate of analysis (CoA) is available on request.
Where: FreshTrap's high-purity 1-MCP is synthesised and verified in Thailand, so a question about a batch goes to the people who made and measured it.
A wrong structure or a wrong concentration cannot be seen by eye, so we measure the result rather than trust the recipe: two questions, two instruments. Molecules we make for you are verified the same way, as suits each molecule, with above 99% purity in every batch. Today the GC-MS runs on the instruments of Chulalongkorn and Kasetsart universities.
Two different things
NMR and GC-MS tell you what is in a product. Registration is the regulator's decision about the product itself, and we keep the two apart.
Registration with Thailand's Department of Agriculture is in progress. Until it is complete, this page describes how we make and check our material; it is not a regulatory claim.
Safety, residues and the rules of the market you ship to are covered on safety and regulation.
Intellectual property
A Thai petty-patent application for the production process was filed on 22 January 2025 (no. 2503000266; applicant: Chulalongkorn University). It is an application, and we describe it as one.
Its Thai title is การออกแบบและกรรมวิธีการผลิตสารเชิงซ้อน 1-เมทิล
Our stabilising formulation is proprietary and stays company know-how.
Platform
The path that took 1-MCP from the lab to a packed sachet (synthesis, verification, encapsulation, scale-up, trials) is built to be used again. This is where we are taking it.
We aim to make specialty chemicals that Thailand imports today, synthesised and verified here.
Custom synthesis uses the same route (closed-system synthesis, NMR and GC-MS checks, scale-up), and we say when a project is not a fit. Tell us the molecule you need and what it must do.
Functional molecules for materials are part of our long-term plan.
Our next molecules are in development; each is labelled on our products page with where it really stands.
Published research on 1-MCP, not FreshTrap results
Blankenship & Dole (2003). Postharvest Biology and Technology 28:1–25. doi:10.1016/S0925-5214(02)00246-6 — 1-MCP binds the receptor about 10× more strongly than ethylene; review.
Hu et al. (2017). BioResources 12(1):2234–2248 — plants form new receptors over time; the effect is a delay (review). bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu
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