Chemical Composition and Insecticidal Activity Against Sitophilus zeamais of the Essential Oils Derived from Artemisia giraldii and Artemisia subdigitata

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine the chemical composition and insecticidal activity of the essential oils derived from flowering aerial parts of Artemisia giraldii Pamp. and A. subdigitata Mattf. (Family: Asteraceae) against the maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais Motsch.). Essential oils of aerial parts of A. giraldii and A. subdigitata were obtained from hydrodistillation and investigated by GC and GC-MS. A total of 48 and 33 components of the essential oils of A. giraldii and A. subdigitata were identified, respectively. The principal compounds in A. giraldii essential oil were β-pinene (13.18%), iso-elemicin (10.08%), germacrene D (5.68%), 4-terpineol (5.43%) and (Z)-β-ocimene (5.06%). 1,8-Cineole (12.26%) and α-curcumene (10.77%) were the two main components of the essential oil of A. subdigitata, followed by β-pinene (7.38%), borneol (6.23%) and eugenol (5.87%). The essential oils of A. giraldii and A. subdigitata possessed fumigant toxicity against the maize weevils with LC50 values of 6.29 and 17.01 mg/L air, respectively. The two essential oils of A. giraldii and A. subdigitata also exhibited contact toxicity against S. zeamais adults with LD50 values of 40.51 and 76.34 µg/adult, respectively. The results indicated that the two essential oils show potential in terms of fumigant and contact toxicity against grain storage insects.

The Tunisian Artemisia Essential Oils for Reducing Contamination of Stored Cereals by Tribolium castaneum

“…Moreover, A. herba-alba contains more menthane monoterpenoids among them terpinen-4-ol was present only in this species. According to many studies, terpinen-4-ol has insecticidal activity against Sitophilus zeamais (Motschulsky) (51). Other researchers (17) stated the effective contact toxicity of A. herba-alba against T. castaneum.…”

Chemical Composition and Insecticidal Activity of Essential Oil of <i>Artemisia frigida</i> Willd (Compositae) against Two Grain Storage Insects

“…The essential oil of A. frigida aerial parts harvested from Western Canada have 1,8-cineole (25.1%), camphor (20.6%), chrysanthemone (7.4%), and camphene (4.1%) [22]. The differences in oil composition was slight as 2 to 3 components However, compared with the fumigant activity of the other essential oils reported in the literature and which were tested using a similar bioassay, the essential oil obtained in the present study exhibited the same or stronger fumigant toxicity against maize weevils, e.g., the essential oils of A. vestita [11], A. eriopoda [13], A. lavandulaefolia and A. sieversiana [15], A. capillaris and A. mongolica [23], A. giraldii and A. subdigitata [12], and A. igniaria [24]. The essential oil of A. frigida aerial parts also possessed the same level of fumigant toxicity to the booklice as that of essential oils of Foeniculum vulgare [16], Illicium pachyphyllum fruits [25], and Curcuma wenyujin rhizomes [26].…”

“…and booklice (Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel) [10]. Essential oils of several Chinese Artemisia species were demonstrated to possess insecticidal activity to grain storage insects [11][12][13]. However, a literature survey shows that there is no report on insecticidal activity of the essential oil derived from A. frigida aerial parts.…”

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometric Analysis and Insecticidal Activity of Essential Oil of Aerial Parts of <i>Mallotus apelta</i> (Lour.) Muell.-Arg. (Euphorbiaceae)

“…The commercial grain fumigant, methyl bromide (MeBr) exhibited fumigant activity against Moreover, the essential oil exhibited only 2400 times less toxicity than dichlorvos against the booklice because dichlorvos was reported to exhibit fumigant toxicity against L. bostrychophila with an LC 50 value of 1.35 × 10 -3 mg/l [11]. However, compared with other essential oils in the previous studies that were tested using a similar bioassay, the essential oil of M. apelta aerial parts exhibited stronger or similar level of fumigant toxicity against S. zeamais adults, e.g., the essential oils of Aster ageratoides [13], Murraya exotica [14], Ostericum sieboldii [16] and several essential oils from Genus Artemisa [17,18]. Moreover, the main constituent, β-eudesmol, has been demonstrated to possess contact toxicity and ovicidal activity against diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella [19], and acute toxicity against the common vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster was also observed [20].…”