Morphological Abnormalities of Betulinic Acid from Ziziphus Jujuba Against the Callasobruchus Chinensis (Coleoptera: Bruchidae)

Abstract

Betulinic acid is a compound isolated from bark of Ziziphus jujuba. Betulinic acid,a triterpenoid. Betulinic acid exhibits a broad range of biological activities. It is an insect growth regulator, we observed the effect of different concentrations (10, 8, 6, 4and 2 μg / μl doses) Betulinic acid on Callosobruchus chinensis growth and development, in our observations we observed various morphological abnormalities like degeneration, deformation in larval, pupal stages. Untreated Callosobruchus chinensis showed normal in the developmental stages with the larval instar stages and henceforth developimg into pupa without any deformities. However Betulinic acid affected larval instars showed disrupted structures of the cuticle like tanning of cuticle and abnormal larvae over-aged larva with either complete or partial damage of pupa. The results demonstrated that Betulinic acid causes rapid cessation of growth due to disruption of larval structure and inhibition of growth following topical treatment on 4th 5th instar and pupae of Callosobruchus chinensis.