Bio-efficacy of Acacia auriculiformis against Bactrocera cucurbitae

Abstract

Synthetic chemical pesticides used for pest control in agriculture have resulted in enormous problems raising concerns about their effect on environment and human health. It necessitates imposing a limit on the use of these harmful chemicals. of insecticidal potential of purified fractions obtained form A. auriculiformis against the selected pest, B. cucurbitae along with the analysis of chemical constitutes of these fractions to establish a base for industrial applications and formulations of ready to use type of chemicals for farmers. Traditional pest control methods led to an era of pesticide-contaminated food, air, and water. The scientific community is primarily focused on developing ecofriendly, biodegradable, and human-safe pest control chemicals. Plants are investigated for their extensive phytochemical resources as a result of this search. The purpose of this study is to investigate the active components of Acacia auriculiformis, an economically important medicinal plant, against Bactrocera cucurbitae, the melon fruit fly. The results showed that fractions of ethyl acetate extract have a promising effect against insect pests, as they significantly reduced emergence, increased mortality, and decreased the pupal weight of pest with treatments. The chemical characterization of the active ingredients using various spectroscopic techniques (FTIR, NMR, LC-MS) shows that flavonoids make up the majority of the fractions. The findings also concluded the presence of flavonoids mainly apigenin, gallic acid and catechin in fraction A1, A2 and A4 respectively. This will lead to the formation of base for further development of ecofriendly chemicals from the plant source as well as in the laboratory as potential control agents of insect pests like B. cucurbitae.