Estradiol-17β in Bombyx mori: possible significance and its effect on silk production

Estradiol-17β: Tracing its metabolic significance in female fatbody of fifth instar larvae of silkworm, Bombyx mori L (race: Nistari)

“…Thus the present observations together with the experimental data reported by Keshan and Ray (1998, 2000, 2001a, strengthen the idea that vertebrate steroids have an ancient and functional evolutionary history (Mechoulam et al, 1984).…”

Impact of the wild plant, Fagonia bruguieri, extracts on the transaminase activities in some tissues of Schistocerca gregaria (orthoptera: acrididae).

“…Other plant extracts, or even insecticides and insect growth regulators (IGRs), exhibited similar effects on the activity of GOT in other insect species such as Tribolium castaneum by 10 and 20 ppm of cypermethrin ( Saleem and Shakoori, 1986), Spodoptera littoralis by Margosan-0 (Mostafa, 1993), S. littoralis by Melia azedarach extracts (Hassan, 2002), Musca domestica by Margosan-0 and Jojoba oil (Ghoneim and Abdel-Ghaffar, 2007), M. domestica by the IGRs lufenuron and diofenolan (Al-Dali, 2008). The major inhibitory effect of the F. bruguieri extracts, in the present study, to a great extent, agrees with those effects reported for other insect species after treatment with different botanicals or IGRs, such as T. castaneum treated with RB-a (neem fruit seed extract) (Tabassum, 1994, Sitophilus oryzae treated with RB-a (Azmi et al, 1998), Bombyx mori treated with estradiol-17B (vertebrate female sex steroid hormone) (Keshan and Ray, 1998), Alphitobium diaperinus treated with the insecticide Danitol (Tufail, 1991) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus treated with azadirachtin (Azt.) (Bream, 2003), Anophelus stephensi treated with RB-b (Rajput, 2003).…”

“…Inhibitory effects of several plant extracts, IGRs and insecticides on the GPT activity were reported for Chrysocoris stolli by an ecdysteroid (Saha et al, 1985), S. oryzae by permethrin (+ bioallethrin) (Keshan and Ray, 1998), S. littoralis by Margosan-0 (Mostafa, 1993), T. castaneum by the neem extract RB-a (Tabassum et al, 1994), A. diaperinus by Danitol (Tufail, 1991) and the neem formation RB-a + PBO +TX-100 (Tabassum et al,1998), S. littoralis by M. azedarach extracts (Hassan, 2002), Euprepocnemis plorans by some neem limonoids (Abdel-Ghaffar and .…”

Vertebrate hormones in insects: the role of estrogen in silkworm – a review

“…Whatever the mechanism of the action of E 2 may be on larval life, the effect of the hormone (E 2 ) as demonstrated on the larval life of silkworm is a beneficial one (Das and Ray, 2014b). Keshan and Ray (2000) suggested that silkworm larvae have been found to be highly sensitive to exogenous hormones, and the effects of hormone applications are very much dependent on the age of the larvae and the particular dose of the hormone. The unchanged cocoon shell weight (without pupa) with the reduction of the 5th instar larval life span by 2 days clearly guarantee the possibilities of net increase in silk production after E 2 treatment.…”