Chemical Composition, Toxicity and Repellency of Inula graveolens Essential Oils from Roots and Aerial Parts against Stored-Product Beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst)

In this work, essential oils extracted from roots and aerial parts of Inula graveolens by hydrodistillation and their fractions obtained by chromatographic simplification were first investigated for their chemical composition by GC/MS and then evaluated for the first time for their repellency and contact toxicity properties against Tribolium castaneumadults. Twenty-eight compounds were identified in roots essential oil (REO), which accounted for 97.9 % of the total oil composition, with modhephen-8-beta-ol (24.7 %), cis-arteannuic alcohol (14.8 %), neryl isovalerate (10.6 %) and thymol isobutyrate (8.5 %) as major constituents. Twenty-two compounds were found in the essential oil from aerial parts (APEO), which accounted for 93.9 % of the total oil, with borneol (28.8 %), caryophylla-4(14),8(15)-dien-6-ol (11.5 %), caryophyllene oxide (10.9 %), tau-cadinol (10.5 %) and bornyl acetate (9.4 %) as main compounds.REO and APEO displayed stronger repellency after 2 h of exposure (80.0 and 90.0 %, respectively) against T. castaneum at the concentration of 0.12 mu L/cm(2). After fractionation, fractions R-4 and R-5 exhibited greater effects (83.3 % and 93.3 %, respectively) than the roots essential oil. Furthermore, the fractions AP(2) and AP(3) showed higher repellency (93.3 and 96.6 %, respectively) than the aerial parts oil. The LD50 values of oils from roots and aerial parts topically applied were 7.44 % and 4.88 %, respectively. Results from contact toxicity assay showed that fraction R-4 was more effective than the roots oil with LD50 value of 6.65 %. These results suggests that essential oils of roots and aerial parts from I. graveolens may be explored as potential natural repellent and contact insecticides against T. castaneum in stored products.

Automated summary

In this study, essential oils from Inula graveolens were evaluated for their chemical composition, repellency, and contact toxicity against Tribolium castaneum. The results showed that the oils from both the roots and aerial parts exhibited strong repellency, with fractionated compounds showing even stronger effects.