Contact Toxicity and Repellent Effects of Essential Oils from Toddalia asiatica Against Two Stored‐Product Insects

Abstract

Insect infestations continually endanger stored goods, underscoring the significance of discovering eco‐friendly insecticides for pest management. Essential oils (EOs) from different parts of Toddalia asiatica (leaf, fruit and branch) were extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC‐MS. Carvene, p‐cymene and muurolene are the principal compounds of T. asiatica leaf (TAL), T. asiatica fruit (TAF) and T. asiatica branch (TAB) EO respectively. Our work aimed to assess the contact toxicity and repellent effects of EOs on two storage pests, Tribolium castaneum and Lasioderma serricorne. All tested EOs exhibited obvious contact toxicity, especially, TAL EO against T. castaneum (33.48 μg/adult) and TAF EO against L. serricorne (16.42 μg/adult). Repellency tests revealed that TAL and TAF EOs, at a concentration of 78.63 nL/cm2, achieved nearing 100% efficiency against T. castaneum. These results suggest that EOs of T. asiatica could be used as effective botanical insecticides for managing stored‐product insects.