Citrus Essential Oils: A Suite of Insecticidal Compounds

Abstract

Citrus essential oils (CEOs) and their constituent compounds are being reported to have multifarious activities. In this chapter an attempt is made to discuss the insecticidal activities, as well as CEO profile of different vegetative part of Citrus species and biocidal potentiality of their constituent compounds against diverse insect pests. It is observed that in most of the CEO constituent profile, limonene is the major constituent compound. Other important constituents present in different percentages in different CEOs are β-citronellal, linalool, pinene, β- caryophyllene, β-myrcene, terpinene, citral etc. These plant EO constituents are reported to have insecticidal effects against diverse insect species. Taking the four peel EOs of Citrus limon, Citrus paradisi, Citrus medica, Citrus maxima commonly grown in North Eastern part of India, study on their insecticidal effects against Dolichoderus affinis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) was made and result is presented showing higher fumigant toxicity of C. medica and C. limon oil against the ant sp. With the increasing awareness for using safe insecticidal products among consumers, the citrus EOs with their attracting terpene compounds having good insecticidal potency bear all attributes to be used as commercial green pesticides in coming days both in indoor and outdoor management of insect pests.

Seasonal metabolic profiling of Valencia orange leaf essential oil using GC coupled with chemometrics, nano-formulation, and insecticidal evaluation: in vivo and in silico

“…4,5 Citrus sinensis is commonly known as sweet orange; it possess many bioactive secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, steroids, EOs, and coumarins. 6 Many Citrus species are used in folk medicine as insecticides, 7 whereas orange peels are used traditionally as insecticidal agents via burning of peel to control mosquitoes and houseflies in Ghana. 8 The essential oil of Citrus sinensis peel revealed insecticidal activity against mosquitoes, cockroaches, and houseflies.…”

“…8 The essential oil of Citrus sinensis peel revealed insecticidal activity against mosquitoes, cockroaches, and houseflies. 7 Furthermore, the peel and leaves EO showed potential effects on Cx. pipiens mosquitos.…”

Repellence of Aedes aegypti with oils from Citrus sinensis and Citrus paradisi fruit peelsi from Nsukka

“…Our interest in this paper is the peel which is loaded with poorly explored components but regarded as waste in our locality. Available information suggests that the peels are highly endowed with biochemical components which number up to 200 (Paoli et al 2016;Khanikor et al, 2021;Essombe Malolo et al, 2023). The peel extract is toxic to Aedes in their various stages (Meisyara et al, 2021;Gomes et al, 2020).…”

“…Citrus peels contain essential oils (CPO) that include some open chain hydrocarbons, naringin, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, alphaterpenoids, monoterpenes, pectins, and many other volatile compounds (Favela-Hernández et al, 2016;Khanikor et al, 2021;Gomes et al, 2022). Mosquito repellence is a veritable property of CPO that had been documented (Heidari et al, 2017).…”

Impact of Silver Nanoparticles on Lemon Growth Performance: Insecticidal and Antifungal Activities of Essential Oils From Peels and Leaves

“…Compounds of limonene, β-pinene, neral, sabinene, geranial, geranyl acetate, neryl acetate, and geranyl acetate were identified in leaf EOs from C. limon ( Vekiari et al, 2002 ; Hossain et al, 2021 ). Citrus essential oils and their compounds are informed to have multifarious activities, limonene is the main constituent compound ( Mohamed and Mohamed, 2015 ; Khanikor et al, 2021 ). CEOs compounds having vital insecticidal potency tolerate all attributes to be utilized as green pesticides control of insect pests.…”