Rosmarinus officinalis as a natural insecticide: a review

Abstract

Arthropods’ resistance to synthetic pesticides and environmental issues has encouraged scientists to develop alternatives to these noxious materials. In this respect, botanical types have attracted lots of attention and among them, Rosmarinus officinalis from Lamiaceae family has been found as a versatile candidate. According to the literature, a wide range of research were conducted to prove the efficacy of R. officinalis against arthropods and this study aims to review, discuss, and consolidate their results by dividing them into four groups of stored product pests (SPP), medically important insects (MII), agricultural pests (AP), and other arthropods (OA). Most studies focused on pests as follows: SPP: Callosobruchus maculatus, Tribolium castaneum, Sitophilus granaries, Sitophilus oryzae, and Tribolium confusum, MII: Aedes aegypti, Culex pipiens, Culex quinquefasciatus, and Anopheles stephensi, AP: Tetranychus urticae, Trichoplusia ni, and Myzus persicae and OA: Phytoseiulus persimilis. Finally, some points and suggestions were provided for development of botanical insecticides.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Rosemary
• Rosmarinus officinalis
• Salvia rosmarinus; biopesticide
• botanical insecticide
• insects

Acknowledgments

Our thanks go to School of Public Health and Faculty of Pharmacy at Tehran University of Medical Sciences as well as Faculty of Pharmacy at Hormozgan University of Medical for their support.

Author contributions

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

Hojjat Jahanian: Conceptualization and outline of the study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of data, preparation of initial manuscript.

Niloofar Kahkeshani: Complementary revision, figure design.

Alireza Sanei-Dehkordi: Primary scientific revision.

Murray B. Isman: Final approval, scientific and editorial modification.

Mina Saeedi: contributed to the revision of the manuscript.

Mahnaz Khanavi: Project management.

Funding

No specific funding was obtained.

Table 4. Studies on insecticidal activity of Rosmarinus officinalis on agricultural pests and other insects.