Insecticidal activity of two essential oils used in perfumery (ylang ylang and frankincense)

Abstract

Nowadays, only a little part of essential oils produced at an industrial level is employed for insecticidal formulations, while thousand tons are used for perfumery purposes. This research explores the insecticidal potential of two essential oils largely used in perfumery, ylang ylang (Cananga odorata) and frankincense (Boswellia spp.) on three insects of economic importance, Culex quinquefasciatus, Musca domestica and Spodoptera littoralis, comparing their performances with a commercial pyrethrum extract. GC-MS showed that the ylang ylang and frankincense essential oils were mainly composed of α-thujene (73.8%), benzyl salicylate (24.4%) and linalool (21.9%), respectively. Ylang-ylang and frankincense essential oils showed significant insecticidal activity against C. quinquefasciatus larvae (LC₅₀ < 70 ppm) and M. domestica adults (LD₅₀ < 80 µg/female), respectively, while no relevant toxicity was detected on S. littoralis. As highly available from the fragrance industry, these essential oils may be further considered as promising ingredients to be used in botanical formulations against mosquitoes and houseflies.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Cananga odorata
• Boswellia spp
• commercial essential oils
• insecticide
• mosquito larvicide
• housefly

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the FAR 2018 (Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca) of the University of Camerino and PRIN 2017 (project n. 2017CBNCYT_005) of MIUR. R. Pavela would like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic for financial support of the botanical pesticide and basic substances research. Financial support for this work was provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic (Project No. QK1910072).