Repellency and toxicity of the crude ethanolic extract of Limoniastrum guyonianum against Tribolium castaneum. Acheuk, F., Belaid, M., Lakhdari, W., Abdellaoui, K., Dehliz, A., and Mokrane, K. (Algeria/Tunisia)

In nature, the interaction between plants and insects has led to the production of a set of secondary compounds. Many plant secondary metabolites have significant insecticidal activity. The aim of this study is to evaluate the repellent and insecticidal effect of the crude ethanolic extract of Limoniastrum guyonianum against adults of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. For the insecticidal activity, five doses (100, 200, 400, 600, and 800 µg/insect) were tested and were topically applied onto insect thorax. An area preference method was adopted to assess the repellent activity. A phytochemical study and measurement of two enzymatic biomarkers: acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and gluthatione Stransferase (GST) were made to understand the mechanisms of toxic action of the tested extract. Phytochemical study showed the presence of various groups of natural products. The plant is rich in flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, and glycosides. Low amount of saponins was noted. The study also showed that this plant does not contain iridoids. For repellent activity, the results showed that the highest dose (800 µg/insect) exhibited obvious repellent effect against T. castaneum. The repellency percentage was 90.14 ± 2.5% after 4 h of exposure. The crude extract was found to be toxic to T. castaneum and the corresponding LD50value was 218.3 μg/insect. Moreover, the extract inhibits the activity of the acetylcholinesterase (IC50: 205.7 µg/insect)