Identification of Insecticidal Constituents of the Essential Oil of Acorus calamus Rhizomes against Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine the chemical composition of the essential oil of Acorus calamus rhizomes, its insecticidal activity against the booklouse, (Liposcelis bostrychophila) and to isolate any insecticidal constituents from the essential oil. The essential oil of A. calamus rhizomes was obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS. A total of 32 components of the essential oil of A. calamus rhizomes was identified and the principal compounds in the essential oil were determined to be α-asarone (50.09%), (E)-methylisoeugenol (14.01%), and methyleugenol (8.59%), followed by β-asarone (3.51%), α-cedrene (3.09%) and camphor (2.42%). Based on bioactivity-guided fractionation, the three active constituents were isolated from the essential oil and identified as methyleugenol, (E)-methylisoeugenol and α-asarone. The essential oil exhibited contact toxicity against L. bostrychophila with an LD50 value of 100.21 µg/cm2 while three constituent compounds, α-asarone, methyleugenol, and (E)-methylisoeugenol had LD50 values of 125.73 µg/cm2, 103.22 µg/cm2 and 55.32 µg/cm2, respectively. Methyleugenol and (E)-methylisoeugenol possessed fumigant toxicity against L. bostrychophila adults with LC50 values of 92.21 μg/L air and 143.43 μg/L air, respectively, while the crude essential oil showed an LC50 value of 392.13 μg/L air. The results indicate that the essential oil of A. calamus rhizomes and its constituent compounds have potential for development into natural fumigants/insecticides for control of the booklice.

Repellency of three plant essential oils against red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

“…The following equation was used to calculate the percent repellency: PR (%) = [(C-T) / (C+T)] × 100 (Liu et al, 2013). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's post hoc tests were used to compare the mean percentage of repellencies (PRs) between essential oils.…”

Phytochemical, Antioxidant, and Trace Element Analysis of Anthelmintic Plants of North-East India

“…A plethora of literature revealed the biological property of the plant such as antimicrobial, insecticidal etc. and several phytochemicals like α-asarone, (E)-methyl Isoeugenol, methyleugenol, β-asarone, α-cedrene have been isolated [14,15].…”

Insecticidal Activities of Compounds from Sweet Flag (Acorus Calamus) against Red Imported Fire Ants Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…Alpha-asarone and β-asaroneare are the most common bioactive compounds of the sweet flag (Lee et al, 2002;Yao et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2013) and were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Sigma-Aldrich China, Inc., China). A 10% stock solution of each bioactive compounds was prepared separately using methyl alcohol as solvent and stored at 5ºC for future uses.…”