Abstract

Objective: To assess the chemical components and toxicity of Artemisia herba-alba (A. herbaalba) essential oil against two major stored cereal pests, Tribolium castaneum (T. castaneum) and Trogoderma granarium (T. granarium). Methods: Two bioassay actions were tasted: repellent and fumigant actions against adult and larvae, respectively, to assess the effect of A. herba-alba essential oil. Results: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometer analyses of the essential oil contained β-thujone (12.50%), α-thujone (8.78%), sabinyl acetate (8.56%), terpinene-4-ol (8.51%), α-terpineol (3.35%), 1,8-cineol (5.45%), γ-terpene (4.82%), camphor (4.52%), dimethylethylbenzene (3.93%) and α-terpinene (3.35%) as the major components. Fumigant toxicity tests showed that A. herba-alba oil was more toxic than T. granarium (LC50 = 2.09 mg/mL, LC 90 = 4.12 mg/mL) and T. castaneum (LC50 = 6.39 mg/mL, LC90 = 10.10 mg/mL). Conclusions: This study has highlighted a bioinsecticide activity of A. herba-alba against two insect pests of stored foodstuffs (T. castaneum and T. granarium). The Artemisia essential oil offers an interesting potential insecticide that could be studied more deeply to isolate and identify the active substances, to study their physiological impact on other insects

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