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Toxicity, repellency and chemical composition of essential oils from Cymbopogon species against red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

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Abstract

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) is one of the major destructive pests to stored milled products. It has developed resistance to chemical fumigants. Therefore, finding an eco-friendly biofumigant for the management of the pest is of great importance. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the insecticidal efficacy of essential oil from Cymbopogon flexuosus (lemongrass), Cymbopogon winterianus (citronella), and Cymbopogon martini (palmarosa) against T. castaneum and its chemical composition. GC–MS analysis was conducted and results showed that the essential oils of C. flexuosus, C. winterianus and C. martini are rich in citral, neral, cironellol, D-lemonene, geraniol and geranyl acetate respectively. The essential oils from C. flexuosus, C. winterianus and C. martini had a very strong repellent activity to adults of T. castaneum and were significantly repellent at 1.41 µL/cm2. The essential oil of C. flexuosus had a high fumigant activity against adults of T. castaneum with LC50 values of 27.1 and 4.23 µL/L after 24 and 48 h exposure. Furthermore, essential oils of C. winterianus had a high contact toxicity to T. castaneum with LD50 values of 2.1 and 1.5 µg/L after 24 and 48 h exposure, followed by 2.5 and 1.6 µg/L of C. martini and 4.09 and 2.07 µg/L of C. flexuosus after 24 and 48 h exposure respectively. The results show that essential oils extracted from the Cymbopogon species are natural insecticides and can be used as an efficient management tool against T. castaneum.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the Director of the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, Manipur, India for his keen interest in this study. The first author acknowledges the financial support by the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, India under the IBSD-Partnership project programme (IBSD/A1/Partnership/2016/7).

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  1. Insect Bioresources Laboratory, Animal Resources Programme, Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Takyelpat, Imphal, Manipur, 795001, India

    Mayanglambam Alina Devi, Dinabandhu Sahoo & Yallappa Rajashekar

  2. Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University (Centre for Advanced Studies), Canchipur, Imphal, Manipur, 795003, India

    Mayanglambam Alina Devi & Thingbaijam Binoy Singh

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  1. Mayanglambam Alina Devi
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Devi, M.A., Sahoo, D., Singh, T.B. et al. Toxicity, repellency and chemical composition of essential oils from Cymbopogon species against red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). J Consum Prot Food Saf 15, 181–191 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-019-01264-y

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