Contribution to the study of the insecticidal potential of some spontaneous plants from the Ghardaia region

Abstract

The current study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of four extracts of Citrullus colocynthis (L), a plant collected from the Dhayet Ben Dhahoua region (Ghardaia) against the red flour beetle insect Tribolium castaneum, as part of research on alternative control methods against insect pests of stored grains. Different fractions were extracted from C. colocynthis by maceration using different solvents with diverse polarities. These extracts allowed us to achieve that crud extracts (MeOH/H2O and EtOH/H2O) obtained the highest yields (25.85% and 23.8% respectively) compared to the fractions. The application of these fractions on the flour beetle insect was performed with two methods, contact and ingestion, using three doses/method/extract. The results showed that all the extracts have a toxic potential against this pest noting that the highest mortality rates were recorded by tannin extract (>50%), while the flavonoid extract showed the lowest mortality rate (<25%). Depending on the method of application, the contact mode showed greater effectiveness (>50%) than the ingestion mode (<25%). Furthermore, depending on time, the period of three days was more effective than the other times (mortality > 50%). In contrast, for doses, the biggest dose (750 mg/mL) was the most effective among the doses given. The use of this biopesticide can promise to protect stored grains from beetle infestation and reduce the risk of secondary human exposure.