Insecticidal activity and chemical composition of essential oil from Artemisia judaica L. against Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (coleoptera: bruchidae)

The insecticidal properties of essential oil derived via the hydro-distillation method from aerial parts of Artemisia judaica L. were tested against the cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus (Fab.) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). The repellent activity assay of essential oil against C. maculates adults indicated that in concentrations of 63.7, 31.9, 15.9, 8.0 or 4.0 μg/cm2, the oil reduced egg laying by 92.5, 86.0, 61.8, 42.7 and 12.5%, respectively. Also, the residual-film assay showed that after 72 hours of treatment, concentrations of 50 and 40% were highly effective against the C. maculates adults. The sub-lethal effects of essential oil were investigated on fecundity and F1 progany by exposing adult females to treated seeds. Both LC25 and LC50 of essential oil significantly reduced F1 progany production compared to the control. The chemical composition of the essential oil was analyzed by GC-MS and the resulting oil piperitone (32.4%), camphor (20.6%) and (E)-ethyl cinnnamate (8.2%) were found to contain the major constituents of the oil. This provided the insecticidal properties of the essential oil against cowpea weevil.