New Horizons in Insect Science Towards Sustainable Pest Management

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Fumigant Toxicity of Nutmeg Seed

Essential Oil ( Myristica fragrans

Houtt.) (MF, Myristicaceae) on

Cowpea Weevil, Callosobruchus

maculatus F. (Coleoptera:

Bruchidae)

Mahshid Alibabaie and Mohammad Hasan Safaralizadeh

A. K. Chakravarthy (ed.), New Horizons in Insect Science: Towards Sustainable Pest Management,
DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2089-3_13, © Springer India 2015

M. Alibabaie () · M. H. Safaralizadeh
Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Faculty
West Azarbayjan province, Urmia University, Urmia,
Iran
e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

Insects are among major pests of stored cereals

often causing an important economic damage

amounting to 5–10 % in the temperate zone and to

20–30 % in the tropical one (Haque et al. 2000 ).

Keywords

Biological activity · Essential oils · Nutmeg seed · Weevil

Abstract

Unlike conventional pesticides, usually these natural aromatic products,

present less risk to humans and the environment. Essential oils are rec-

ognized as alternatives to fumigants. The biological activity of essential

oil extracted from nutmeg seed, Myristica fragrans against adults of Cal-

losobruchus maculatus was investigated in a series of laboratory experi-

ments carried out at 27 ± 1 °C and 60 ± 5 % relative humidity (RH), in dark

condition. Dry seeds were subjected to hydrodistillation, using a modi-

fied Clevenger-type apparatus. The oil was applied against 1–3 day old

adults of C. maculatus. The LC 50 of M. fragrans on C. maculatus was

4.232 μL/L air. The relationship between exposure time and oil concen-

tration on mortality showed that mortality increased as oil concentration

and exposure time increased. The concentration of 30 μL/L and exposure

time of 24 h was sufficient to obtain 100 % kill of insects. C. maculatus

was significantly susceptible to this essential oil. Bioassays conducted in

air-tight glass chambers showed fumigant toxicity as per the filter-paper

method. The experiment was conducted in four replications using a com-

pletely randomized design. The results suggest that M. fragrans can be

used to control C. maculatus.