The increasing world population has generated the need to raise yields of primary production, resulting in turn in an increased use of conventional pesticides to control pest damages in crops. The use of classical pesticides yields effective results in the short term, but it has different draw backs, such as the development of resistance and the adverse environmental effects on the biotic and abiotic environment. Among other approaches to substitute conventional pesticides in Integrated Pest Management pro-grams (pheromones, monitoring, and organic production), the developing of new pesticides from natural resources such as undamaged native plants (botanical pesticides) has been attempted in the past. Croton trinitatis Millsp is a plant that belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. This genus is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical world, from southern United States to South America, also in the West Indies. The aim of this work was to study the volatile chemical composition of essential oil (EO) from colombian Croton trinitatis Millsp and evaluate its anti-insectan activity. EO was isolated by hydrodistillation technique. The compounds were identified by gas chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometric detector (GC-MS). The major compounds found in C. trinitatis were cis-caryophyllene (14.0%), calamenene (12,9%), cadin-1,4-diene (7.0%), allocimene (6.0%), bicyclogermacrene (5.4%), Germacrene D (4.85%), trans-caryophyllene (3.7%). The essential oil was evaluated in independent bioassays against three insect pests. Aphid settling inhibition was evaluated with a grass specialist, Rhopalosiphum padi, and a feeding generalist, Myzus persicae (both Hemiptera: Aphididae). Antifeedant activity was tested with larvae of the generalist Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Strong settling inhibition (SI) activity (expressed as % SI, where 100% means complete inhibition by the extract) was against M. persicae (% SI = 78.9 � 11.3) and R. Padi (88.7 � 9.4). Antifeedant activity (expressed as % of feeding reduction (FR), where 100% means no consumption on extract-treated diet) against (% FR = 100 � 0) against S. littoralis was (81.6 � 10.2)

Insect antifeedant properties of the essential oil from Colombian Croton trinitatis Millsp against Spodoptera littoralis, Myzus persicae, and Rhopalosiphum padi

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.