Tagetes minuta L. oil-a new source of juvenile hormone mimicking substance
Saxena, B.P.; Srivastava, J.B.
Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 11(1): 56-58
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5189 PMID: 4779296 Document Number: 66532
The essential oil of Tagetes minuta was found in India to exert juvenile hormone activity on Dysdercus koenigii (F.); 0.08 mu l caused the production of 64% sixth-instar nymphs. Higher doses reduced the formation of sixth-instar nymphs, but the percentage of mortality during moulting increased. Higher dose of 0.2 mu l gave 10% sixth-instar nymphs, but the mortality percentage during moulting rose to 70%. The oil appeared to have no effect on larvae and pupae of Aedes aegypti (L.) or on pupae of Musca domestica L. The oil was fractionated, and the benzene fraction was found to contain the active principle. The oil did not exert any chemosterilant effects on D. koenigii nor did it affect the pre- and post-embryonic development of eggs laid by treated females fertilised by untreated males or untreated females fertilised by treated males. Moulting of the first-instar nymphs of D. koenigii treated with the oil was usually checked, and the few nymphs that moulted did not survive beyond 24 h after the moult.