Plant essential oils and pest management

Abstract

Insect pest management in agriculture is facing challenge in several problems of using synthetic pesticides and toxic fumigants including environmental contamination, pesticide resistance, and destruction of nontarget organisms. So, public and environmental pressure can support environmentally safe pesticide alternatives to the use of synthetic pesticides. In recent years, a new field is developing on the use of botanical pesticide origin in the pest management practices. Botanicals have been considered as potential pest management agents, because they demonstrate to have a wide range of bioactivity and possess contact and fumigant toxicity and repellent, oviposition, and feeding deterrence. In addition, the main advantages of many plant-based pesticides lie in their low mammalian toxicity and rapid degradation with broad-spectrum activity. Botanical insecticides composed of essential oils may prove to be a reasonable alternative to the more persistent synthetic pesticides. The essential oils obtained by the distillation of aromatic plants can be utilized to protect agricultural product pests. Recently, the essential oils and their constituents have received a great deal of attention as pest control agents. They are volatile and can function as fumigants and, in some instances, are comparable to methyl bromide in laboratory tests with insects. Their action against stored product insects has been extensively studied. Moreover, these natural oil and new formulations are considered to be an alternative means of controlling harmful larvae of field crop insects. Recent research has demonstrated their larvicidal and antifeeding effects, their capacity to delay development and adult emergence and cause egg mortality, their deterrent effects on oviposition, and their arrestant and repellent action. Also the combined effects of gamma radiation or diatome with essential oil on some stored product insect have been reported. Despite these most promising properties, problems related to their volatility, poor water solubility, aptitude for oxidation, and high sorption are the important limiting factors for the application of natural compounds in large-scale commodity fumigations, and it might lead to more residue-treated commodities. In view of the problem, it is necessary to do a kind of research such as work on new formulations of the oil components and their effects on sorption, tainting, and residues in food commodities. Nowadays, using new technologies such as nanoencapsulated formulation can overcome the constraints of plant essential oils. It seems that the findings of research could be promising to make practical use of plant essential oils. As the new technology in nanoencapsuled essential oil through the control release of active ingredients overcome the restrictions of plant essential oils usage in storage and farms. Finally, most of the natural pest control measures using botanicals are becoming important tools by the development of their use in pest management, because they could be economical and eco-friendly for both the public health and the environment.