Pest Management Science
Pest Management Science
5 years ago

Coarse and nano emulsions for effective delivery of natural pest control agent pulegone for stored grain protection

Moshe Kostyukovsky, Elena Poverenov, Eli Shaaya, Elazar Quinn, Gilad Golden
BACKGROUND One of the most significant contributors to the global food crisis is grain loss during storage mainly caused by pest insects. Currently, there are two main methods used for insect pest control: fumigation and grain protection by contact insecticides. Since some chemical insecticides can harm humans and environment, there is a global tendency to reduce their use by finding alternative eco-friendly approaches. RESULTS In this paper, a natural pest-managing agent pulegone was encapsulated into coarse and nano emulsions. The emulsions were characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic methods and their stability and pulegone release ability were examined. The insecticidal activity of the prepared formulations against two stored product insects, rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae L.) and red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst) was demonstrated. The nano emulsion-based formulation offered significant advantages and provided powerful bioactivity, with high (> 90%) mortality rates for as long as 5 weeks for both insects, in comparison with coarse emulsions showing high efficacy for only one week. CONCLUSION The developed pulegone-based nano emulsions could serve as a model for an effective alternative method for pest control. Though being of a natural source, toxicological studies should be done before the widespread application of pulegone or pulegone-containing essential oils on dry food products.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/ps.4787

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