Lantana camara
L. is a widespread plant species mostly native to subtropical and tropical regions of the world. In this
study, insecticidal and repellent activities of
L.camara essential oil were evaluated against C
Callosobruchus
maculatus
(Fabricius) (Col: Bruchidae). Analysis of chemical composition by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
showed high amounts of sesquiterpenes, mainly a-humelene (23.3%) and
cis-caryophyllene (16.2%). The results showed
that the essential oil of
L.camara has strong repellent activity against adults of
C. maculatus at all tested concentrations.
After 2 and 4 h, 97.4 and 100% repellency was seen at highest concentrations of 0.4 μL cm
-2, respectively. Moreover, the
oil was found to be toxic to adults when applied by fumigation. Responses varied with the gender of insect and exposure
time. The LC
50 values were 282.7 and 187.9 μL L
-1 for females and males, respectively. An increase in the exposure time
from 3 to 24 h caused increasing in mortality from 23.6 to 100% in males and from 14.1 to 97.1% in females, at highest
concentration (1160 μL L
-1). According to these results,
L.camara essential oil may be useful as an alternative for bean
protection against
C. maculatus.
