Insecticidal activities of tea saponin against diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella and aphid, Aphis craccivora

Abstract

Insecticidal activities of tea saponin were evaluated against larvae of diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) and aphid, Aphis craccivora Koch. In residual toxicity assay, saponin was found more effective against second instar larvae of P. xylostella (LC₅₀=2106.32 mg L¹) and A. craccivora (LC₅₀ = 540.79 mg L⁻¹) after 96 h as compared to positive control. In repellent activity study, saponin at 4000 mg L⁻¹ showed higher repellence (48.57%) to third instar larvae of P. xylostella. However, feeding preference index (PI) of saponin was less in higher concentration (0.63) against third instar larvae of P. xylostella.

Keywords:

• Saponin
• diamondback moth
• aphid
• toxicity
• repellent

Acknowledgements

Authors thank Director, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh for encouragement and support. IHBT communication number for this article is 4035.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, for funding (MLP-0077).