Abstract

Plants act as a rich source of novel natural pesticides. In the backdrop of the recent revival of interest in developing plant-based insecticides, this study was carried out to investigate the pesticidal activity of Sundarban mangrove plants. A total of nine different plant parts from five plants, namely, Aegiceras corniculatum, Excoecaria agallocha, Heritiera fomes, Xylocarpus moluccensis, and Xylocarpus granatum, were extracted with methanol and tested for insecticidal activity against two common stored product pests Sitophilus oryzae and Sitophilus zeamais using direct contact feeding deterrent wafer disc method. Three bark extracts from A. corniculatum, E. agallocha, and H. fomes showed potent and statistically significant insecticidal activity against both S. oryzae and S. zeamais pests (80–100% mortality). All the active bark extracts were further fractionated using C-18 solid-phase extraction (SPE) columns and tested for their insecticidal activity against S. oryzae pest to identify the active fraction. Only the SPE4 fraction (100% MeOH) from all the three active plants showed the activity against S. oryzae pest with a lethal concentration 50% (LC50) value of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg/disc for A. corniculatum, E. agallocha, and H. fomes, respectively. The active fraction of A. corniculatum was further profiled for identification of active compounds using LC-ESI-MS and identified (along with some unknown peaks) two previously reported compounds at m/z 625.17630 (isorhamnetin 3-O-rutinoside) and 422.25346 (paspaline) as major constituents. Insecticidal activities of these plants are reported in this study for the first time and would be useful in promoting research aiming for the development of new biopesticides from mangrove plants.

Highlights

  • Introduction e theme of World FoodDay 2018 was “Zero Hunger,” and that objective was aimed to be accomplished by 2030

  • A total of nine extracts from five Sundarban mangrove plants were investigated for insecticidal activity against two store product pests S. oryzae and S. zeamais that so far not studied before

  • Extraction yield results demonstrated that X. granatum and X. moluccensis showed the highest yield indicating a high number of polar constituents in comparison to A. corniculatum, H. fomes, and E. agallocha (Table 1)

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Summary

Introduction

Introduction e theme of World FoodDay 2018 was “Zero Hunger,” and that objective was aimed to be accomplished by 2030. E pest problem is a major constraint for achieving higher production of agricultural crops [1]. About 10–30% of crops including fruits and vegetables are lost due to pests and associated diseases each year [2,3,4,5]. Management of agricultural pests over the past half century has largely depended on the use of synthetic chemical pesticides for field and postharvest protection of crops [6]. Applied pesticide residues can remain in water, food, fruits, and vegetables [7]. They kill nontarget arthropods and insects involved in pollination. Longterm residual deposition of these toxic chemicals on vegetables and fruits is likely to create different diseases in humans including cancer, skin diseases, hypertension, and kidney diseases [10]. e incidence of pesticide poisoning has been increasing, and it is estimated that about 5 million people die every year as a result of intentional, accidental, and occupational exposure worldwide [11]. erefore, there is an urgent need to discover novel natural pesticides that could prevent damage to agricultural crops and are nontoxic to the environment

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