The Effectiveness of Botanical Insecticides of Four Plant Types and Adjuvants on Nutrition Index of The Fifth Instar Larvae of Heliothis Armigera Hubner

Abstract

The effectiveness of the botanical insecticide formulations derived from a mixture of the ethanol extracts of the four plants; sweet orange peel (Citrus sinensis), Mexican sunflower leaf (Tithonia diversifolia), ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale), lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) with and without miracle adjuvant has been examined on the nutritional index of the fifth instar larvae of H. Armigera. Nutritional index parameters were observed using a complete randomized design (CRD) with six treatment concentrations (0.00%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 1.00%, 2.00%, 4.00%) and 15 larvae for the iterations. The observation data were analyzed by variance if there was any difference followed by Duncan’s test at the level of 5%. The results showed that all treatment concentrations, both with and without miracle adjuvant, could reduce the larval nutrition index and differ from the control treatments, namely; relative consumption rate (RCR) at 19,506% - 28,457% without adjuvant and at 16,566% - 36,740% with adjuvant; relative growth rate (RGR) at 10,545% - 45,545% without adjuvant and at 22,545% - 62,545% with adjuvant; efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI) with and without adjuvant at 14,041% - 24,951% and 16,651% - 57,302% respectively, while the efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD) is at 14,629% - 30,106% without adjuvant and at 16,651% - 57,302% with adjuvant. On the contrary, the approximate digestibility (AD) increased by 18,195% - 30,656% without adjuvant and 22,223% - 62,579% with adjuvant. The effect caused by botanical insecticide formulation with miracle adjuvant is higher compared to the one without any adjuvant. Effective concentration with adjuvant occurs at 2%, and 4% without adjuvant. The results of phytochemical screening showed that the ethanol extract of sweet orange peel contained 5 secondary metabolites (alkaloid, terpenoid, steroid, tannin, saponin), 2 (Flavonoid and Tannin) in Mexican sunflower leaf, 5 (Flavonoid, alkaloid, terpenoid, steroid, and tannins) in ginger rhizomes, and 3 (terpenoids, steroids, saponins) in lemongrass stems.