Pimpinella anisum Essential Oil Nanoemulsion Toxicity against Tribolium castaneum? Shedding Light on Its Interactions with Aspartate Aminotransferase and Alanine Aminotransferase by Molecular Docking.

Ahmed S Hashem,Amira A A Abdel-Hady,Stefania Sut,Marwa M Ramadan,Filippo Maggi,Stefano Dall’Acqua

doi:10.3390/molecules25204841

Abstract

The insecticidal activity is the result of a series of complex interactions between toxic substances as ligands and insect’s enzymes as targets. Actually, synthetic insecticides used in pest control programs are harmful to the environment and may affect non-target organisms; thus, the use of natural products as pest control agents can be very attractive. In the present work, the toxic effect of aniseed (Pimpinella anisum L.) essential oil (EO) and its nanoemulsion (NE) against the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, has been evaluated. To assess the EO mode of action, the impact of sub-lethal concentrations of aniseed EO and NE was evaluated on enzymatic and macromolecular parameters of the beetles, including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total protein, total lipids and glucose. Finally, a molecular docking study was conducted to predict the mode of action of the major EO and NE components namely E-anethole, Limonene, alpha-himalachalene, trans-Verbenol and Linalool at binding site of the enzymes AST and ALT. Herein, the binding location of the main compounds in both proteins are discussed suggesting the possible interactions between the considered enzymes and ligands. The obtained results open new horizons to understand the evolution and response of insect-plant compounds interactions and their effect predicted at the molecular levels and side effects of both animal and human.

Highlights

Modern agricultural practice and food industry are strongly influenced by the need to control pest and parasites
The results of the GC-MS analysis of P. anisum essential oil (EO) and NE showing the composition of both the samples is reported in Table 1, with the identification and quantification of fourteen different volatile constituents, accounting for more of the 99% of oil components
The efficacy of P. anisum EO and NE as an ecofriendly alternative to synthetic insecticides was explored significant activity against T. castaneum adults was observed in a concentration-dependent manner

Summary

Introduction

Modern agricultural practice and food industry are strongly influenced by the need to control pest and parasites. Molecules 2020, 25, 4841 impact of agricultural practices, there is an urgent need to develop new pest control agents that present improved characteristics in terms of selectivity, environmentally acceptability, biodegradability and safety of use. EOs-based pesticides can present some issues, as low water solubility, rapid environmental degradation, and lack of stability during storage [14,15]. These shortcomings greatly impair the potential use of these products for pest management purposes. On this basis, their chemical and physical properties can be modified and improved by a nanotechnology approach through the development of suitable formulations [16,17,18,19,20]

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