Essential oils as green pesticides of stored grain insects

• Main Author: Mukesh Kumar Chaubey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: TMKarpinski Publisher, Tomasz M. Karpiński 2019-11-01
• Series: European Journal of Biological Research
• Subjects: Essential oils; Terpenes; Stored grain insects; Antifeedants; Insect growth regulators
• Online Access: http://www.journals.tmkarpinski.com/index.php/ejbr/article/view/167

Essential oils are naturally occurring phytochemicals produced as secondary metabolite in plants. These are complex mixtures of volatile compounds and generally contain twenty to sixty individual compounds in different concentrations. They are lipophilic in nature and have density lower than water. These interfere with basic metabolic, biochemical, physiological and behavioral functions of insects. Several essential oils and its constituents have been established for their repellent, antifeedant, ovicidal, oviposition inhibitory and developmental inhibitory activities in insects. These insecticides probably interfere with the respiratory and nervous system of the insect to exert its actions. These essential oils provide an alternative source of insect control agents because they contain a range of bioactive chemicals, most of which are selective and have little or no harmful effect on the environment and the non-target organisms including human. Essential oils based formulations can be used as alternative tools in stored-grain insect management. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3528366