Assessment of Essential Oil of Acorus calamus L. and its Major Constituent β-Asarone in Post Harvest Management of Callosobruchus chinensis L.

AbstractAcorus calamus essential oil (EO) and its major constituent β-asarone were subjected to insect repellant, mortality, oviposition deterrent and antifeedant efficacy on Callosobruchus chinensis L. The EO showed greater efficacy against all the test parameters than the β-asarone. The repellency experiments were carried out in a glass Y- shaped olfactometer having 60 ml aerial volume At 150 μl, the EO showed 97.3% repellency of C. chinensis while it was only 74.7% in case of β-asarone. The EO caused 100% mortality of C. chinensis at 0.05 μl/ml after 24 h exposure, while β-asarone could exhibit only up to 46.5%. In addition, the EO was found more efficacious in terms of oviposition, ovicidal, larvicidal and pupaecidal activity than the β- asarone. The fumigant activity of A. calamus EO and β-asarone against adults of C. chinensis was determined through impregnated paper assay in plastic jars of 500 ml capacity .At 0.15 μl/ml EO caused 100% antifeedant activity, thereby, completely protecting the chickp...