Pests of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Abstract

Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) play a significant role in the uplift of economic, social, cultural and ecological aspects of local communities across the world. They are the sources of botanicals that provide people with medicines for the betterment of human health. Such traditional plant-based system of medicine provides primary healthcare needs of 80% population of developing countries. Medicinal plants are extensively cultivated in the fields to meet the increasing demand for pharmaceutical industries. Thus, they are attacked by a number of insect pests in the man-made agroecosystems. The present chapter describes about major and minor insects and mites damaging some of the medicinal and aromatic plants cultivated to meet industrial need. Insect types covered are biting and chewing, sucking, borers and miners, etc., belonging to various insect orders like Hemiptera (35 insects), Coleoptera (20 insects), Lepidoptera (39 insects), Diptera (7 insects), Thysanoptera (3 insects), Isoptera (1 insect) and Tetranychidae (2 mites).