Egg-laying behaviour of caryedon serratus (Olivier) on the essential oils of skimmia anquetilia

Abstract

Nature has been a good source of medicinal agents for thousands of years, and a vast number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources based on the information about their uses in traditional medicine. The genus Skimmia contains essential oils, coumarins and alkaloids. The principal constituent of essential oil, 'linalyl acetate' is used in manufacture of cosmetics, perfumery and flavouring. Egg-laying behaviour/antifeedant activity of Caryedon serratus (Olivier) on the essential oils of flower and leaf of Skimmia anquetilia was studied by choice experiment and was observed that number of eggs decreased as the concentration of oil increased. The maximum number of eggs was observed on solvent control. This showed egg-laying deterrent activity in flowers as well as leaves with essential oil of Skimmia anquetilia at 1.5% concentrations.