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The diversity of synthetic pesticides has been reduced through regulation especially in the European Union,
leading to a resurgence of interest in natural plant products for pest control. Here we investigated two Asteraceae
species, Tithonia diversifolia and Vernonia amygdalina that are used by farmers in Africa in bio-rational pest
control to determine the chemical basis of activity against pests of stored legumes and identify plant compounds
with commercial potential. The cowpea beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus, an ubiquitous pest of African stored
grain legumes, was exposed to extracts of both plant species at 10, 1 and 0.1% w/v and fractions of these extracts
at representative concentrations. Extracts and fractions were toxic to recently emerged adults, but did not reduce
oviposition by those females that survived. The sesquiterpene, tagitinin A, was isolated from one of the active
fractions and identified using H1 and C13-NMR and shown also be toxic to C. maculatus and so partially explains
the activity of the whole plant. Other compounds in the active fractions were identified, at least to structural
class, using high resolution mass spectroscopy (HRESI-MS). Sequiterpenes and flavones were common to fractions
from both plants. Stigmostane steroidal saponins were the most abundant secondary metabolites in V.
amygdalina. |
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