As
a continuous study on the integrated application of volatile
β-pinene as an abundant bioresource, the further and broader
activity assessment of β-pinene analogues was necessary. On
the basis of previous research, the larvicidal activities were carried
out against two agricultural insect pests Plutella xylostella and Mythimna separata. In accordance with the overall
insecticidal effect, it was remarkable that compounds 5k and 5l demonstrated
extreme activity, with LC50 values 1.846 and 1.621 μg/mL
against Plutella xylostella. The preliminary structure–activity
relationship (SAR) was analyzed, and compounds with the appropriate
amphipathic feature displayed more desirable performance. In the meantime,
the quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model
(R
2 = 0.9485, F = 82.94, S
2 = 0.0067) was built. The model indicated the
most important structural feature was the μc value,
which represented the total hybridization components of the molecular
dipole. The work provided a potential and alternative approach to
take advantage of a forest resource in agriculture.