A bibliometric analysis of botanical insecticides for Lepidopteran insects over the period 1985-2022

Abstract

Lepidoptera is an economically important insect pest that attacks many commercially important crops. Synthetic insecticides are currently most extensively utilized to control this pest. The use of massive doses of synthetic pesticides has resulted in resistance and resurgence. Therefore, developing an environmentally acceptable technique for controlling insect pest populations, such as using natural plant components as insecticides, can assist in mitigating the negative impacts of synthetic pesticides. Plant pesticides or botanical insecticides are becoming increasingly popular. This bibliometric research aimed to demonstrate the growth, awareness, importance, international cooperation or collaboration and knowledge gaps in developing synthetic botanical insect pesticides in the future. Information used in this research was culled from 138 scientific papers (Scopus database) and analyzed using VOSviewer 1.6.17. Descriptive statistics was used to identify the rate of botanical insecticide development in controlling these insect pests by analyzing the contributing documents by year, country and bibliometric analysis of country and keyword co-occurrence. The research started in 1985 and exponential growth occurred after 2006. In addition, the trend peaked in 2020 and is currently being maintained. The scientific papers were distributed from 41 countries, with Brazil being the most productive. The bibliographical network shows the relatedness of information about keywords between countries. The results obtained can help recognize existing knowledge gaps that need to be addressed and considered in developing botanical insecticides to control this lepidopteran pest.