Insecticidal and nematicidal activity of mediterranean plant extracts

Abstract

Trabajo presentado en la 8th Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries (8th CMAPSEEC) celebrada en Albania del 19 al 22 de mayo de 2014.Insecticides from plant origin may be used as an alternative to synthetic ones aiming a partial or total replacement of synthetic insecticides which have negative impact in environment and human health. The aim of this work was to studyDittrichiaviscosa and Ferula communis plant extracts for their insecticidal activity against Spodopteralittoralisand nematicidal activity against Meloidogynejavanica.Air dried plant parts collected in Apuglia region (rootF.communis and young shootD.viscosa) were extracted by soxhlet with hexane and successively with ethanol. The antifeedant activity of the plant extracts were investigated on sixth-instar larvae of S. littoralis. F. communis root ethanolic (FcREtOH) and both D. viscosa extracts (DvAHex and DvAEtOH) exhibited a significant reduction ofS. littoralis larvae feeding.The nematicidal activity of the plant extracts, evaluated as percentage of immobile nematodes, indicate that D. viscosayoung shoot extract has the highest nematicidal activity on second stage juveniles of M. javanica. Other tested extract presented no or low nematicidal activity.Peer Reviewe