Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug 17;12(8):737.
doi: 10.3390/insects12080737.

Insecticidal Activity of Lemongrass Essential Oil as an Eco-Friendly Agent against the Black Cutworm Agrotis ipsilon (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Moataz A M Moustafa  1 , Mona Awad  1 , Alia Amer  2 , Nancy N Hassan  1 , El-Desoky S Ibrahim  1 , Hayssam M Ali  3 , Mohammad Akrami  4 , Mohamed Z M Salem  5
Affiliations

Insecticidal Activity of Lemongrass Essential Oil as an Eco-Friendly Agent against the Black Cutworm Agrotis ipsilon (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Moataz A M Moustafa et al. Insects. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: The destructive insect pest Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous species targeting many economically important plants. The extensive and arbitrary use of insecticides has resulted in the build-up of insecticide resistance and pesticide residues accumulating in food. Therefore, it is becoming evident that alternative pest management tools are needed to reduce risks to humans, the environment, and non-target organisms, and at the same time, they should be used in field application at the lowest cost.

Methods: In view of this objective, the present study demonstrates the toxicity of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf) essential oil (EO), against the black cutworm A. ipsilon under controlled laboratory conditions in terms of measuring the activity of peroxidase and detoxification enzymes. The chemical components of the EO were analyzed using GC-MS.

Results: The results show that after 96 h post treatment, the LC15 and LC50 values were 427.67 and 2623.06 mg/L, respectively, of C. citratus EO on second-instar larvae of A. ipsilon. A slight significance in elongation of the larval duration with LC15 and LC50 value was found with control. By GC-MS analysis, the main compounds identified in the EO were α-citral and β-citral with percentages of 35.91%, and 35%, respectively. The oxidative stress indicates a significant increase in CAT and lipid peroxidase enzyme activity after 96 h post treatment at the LC15 and LC50. Conversely, the detoxification enzyme activity shows an inhibition of CarE and GST enzymes of larvae exposed to LC15 and LC50 values in response to C. citratus EO.

Conclusions: The present data show that lemongrass EO has insecticidal activity against the black cutworm, A. ipsilon.

Keywords: Agrotis ipsilon; enzyme activity; essential oil; lemongrass; toxicity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Zaka S.M., Iqbal N., Saeed Q., Akrem A., Batool M., Khan A.A., Anwar A., Bibi M., Azeem S., Rizvi D.-e.-N., et al. Toxic effects of some insecticides, herbicides, and plant essential oils against Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du val (Insecta: Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Saudi J. Biol. Sci. 2019;26:1767–1771. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2018.05.012. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pimentel D., Burgess M. Environmental and Economic Costs of the Application of Pesticides Primarily in the United States. In: Pimentel D., Peshin R., editors. Integrated Pest Management: Pesticide Problems. Volume 3. Springer; Dordrecht, The Netherlands: 2014. pp. 47–71. - DOI
    1. Alves M.d.S., Campos I.M., Brito D.d.M.C.d., Cardoso C.M., Pontes E.G., Souza M.A.A.d. Efficacy of lemongrass essential oil and citral in controlling Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a post-harvest cowpea insect pest. Crop Prot. 2019;119:191–196. doi: 10.1016/j.cropro.2019.02.007. - DOI
    1. Kwon M., Ahn Y.-J., Yoo J.-K., Choi B.-R. Potent Insecticidal Activity of Extracts from Ginkgo biloba Leaves against Nilaparvata lugens (Homoptera: Delphacidae) Appl. Entomol. Zool. 1996;31:162–166. doi: 10.1303/aez.31.162. - DOI
    1. Koul O., Walia S., Dhaliwal G. Essential oils as green pesticides: Potential and constraints. Biopestic. Int. 2008;4:63–84.