Repellent and Contact Toxicity of Alpinia officinarum Rhizome Extract against Lasioderma serricorne Adults.

Jianhua Lü,Dan Ma

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135631

Abstract

The repellent and contact toxicities of Alpinia officinarum rhizome extract on Lasioderma serricorne adults, and its ability to protect stored wheat flour from L. serricorne adults infestation were investigated. The A. officinarum extract exhibited strong repellent and contact toxicities against L. serricorne adults. The toxicities enhanced significantly with the increasing treatment time and treatment dose. The mean percentage repellency value reached 91.3% at class V at the dose of 0.20 μL/cm2 after 48 h of exposure. The corrected mortality reached over 80.0% at the dose of 0.16 μL/cm2 after 48 h of exposure. The A. officinarum extract could significantly reduce L. serricorne infestation level against stored wheat flour. Particularly, the insect infestation was nil in wheat flour packaged with kraft paper bags coated with the A. officinarum extract at the dose of above 0.05 μL/cm2. The naturally occurring A. officinarum extract could be useful for integrated management of L. serricorne.

Highlights

The cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae), called as the tobacco beetle, is one of the most destructive insects of many stored food products including flours, dried fruits such as raisins and dates, cocoa, cereals, herbs, spices, nuts, dry pet foods, tobacco and other products worldwide [1,2,3]
The repellent activity of Alpinia extract progressively increased with increasing exposure dose and exposure period (Table 1), while the L. serricorne adults randomly moved during the whole testing period in the blank control arenas
The contact toxicity of Alpinia extract significantly increased with increasing exposure dose (Table 4)

Summary

Introduction

The cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae), called as the tobacco beetle, is one of the most destructive insects of many stored food products including flours, dried fruits such as raisins and dates, cocoa, cereals, herbs, spices, nuts, dry pet foods, tobacco and other products worldwide [1,2,3]. Methyl bromide and phosphine fumigation had been an effective method to control stored product insects in the world [4,5]. Methyl bromide has been restricted due to its depleting the ozone layer [6,7]. Phosphine fumigation has almost been the only method to control stored product insects [8]. Repeated use of phosphine fumigation for decades has resulted in serious negative effects, such as environmental threat, pesticide residue in food, lethal effects on non-target organisms and insecticide resistance [9,10,11,12], which could threaten the future use of phosphine [13,14]. It is urgent to develop alternative control methods [4,15]. Plant-derived insecticides might be potential replacement candidates [16,17,18]

Methods

Results

Conclusion