Efficiency of Some Plant Essential Oils on Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne incognita

Abstract

Abstract:During the last few decades, researchers have been in the search for environmental friendly ways to cope with agricultural pests, instead of using chemical pesticides. The use of essential oils has a high potential to become an alternative control strategy against plant parasitic nematodes. This study was conducted to determine the toxicity of 10 essential oils (Artemisia absinthium, Citrus bergamia, Eucalyptus citriodora, Hypericum perforatum, Lavandula officinalis, Mentha arvensis, Ocimum basilicum, Piper nigrum, Thymus serpyllum and Zingiber officinale) against the second stage juveniles of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. The aqueous solutions of these essential oils have been applied to the second stage juveniles in three different concentrations (1%, 3% and 5%) at four different application time intervals (12, 24, 48 and 72 h). The interactions between the variables have been examined with repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA). This showed that the interactions of essential oil-time and essential oil-concentration were statistically significant, and it is concluded that L. officinalis, A. absinthium, P. nigrum, C. bergamia and M. arvensis have the most toxic effect in all concentrations and times, respectively.