Abstract
Natural products isolated from various species of Parthenium were fed (in artificial diets) to the herbivorous insects Heliothis zea and Spodoptera exigua to assess the ability of the compounds to inhibit larval growth. Sesquiterpene esters and triterpenes from guayule ( P.argentatum) were relatively non-inhibitory over a range of concentrations reflecting those in the plant. A quercetagetin-based methylated flavonoid from guayule was equitoxic to quercetin, whereas a kaempferol-based methylated flavonoid was stimulatory to both insect species. Sesquiterpene lactones from Parthenium were consistently inhibitory to H. zea; those oxygenated at C-14 and/or C-15 (parthenolides) were more inhibitory than their unsubstituted ambrosanolide analogues. At a dietary concentration of 3.0 mM/kg fr. wt, tetraneurin-A (a parthenolide) reduced larval growth of H. zea by 88 % relative to controls in a chronic feeding bioassay.
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