IN VITRO EVALUATION OF THE INSECTICIDAL EFFECT OF LOROCO LEAF EXTRACT (Fernaldia pandurata) ON MEALYBUG (Pseudococcus elisae)

 SUMMARY

The extract of the loroco leaf (Fernaldia pandurata), has an insecticidal effect due to the essential oils it contains, including lauric acid, to which part of this effect is attributed, thus presenting a control alternative to farmers to be able to combat insect pests such as mealybug (Pseudococcus elisae), which affects crops such as banana (Musa paradisiaca L).

The objective of the research was to evaluate at an in vitro level the percentage of mortality that loroco leaf extract can present at five different concentrations on mealybug, a chemical control (chlorpyrifos 1%), an absolute (distilled water + methanol) and a control without application of products were used. The evaluation was performed under a completely randomized design with eight treatments and four replications. The chemical control obtained a higher mortality percentage of 4.50% more, while the concentrations of the loroco leaf extract presented a mortality percentage of 98.75% at 250 ppm, 97.50% at 225 ppm, 95.00% at 200 ppm, 91.25% at 175 ppm and 88.75 at 150 ppm of lauric acid. The concentrations of the loroco leaf extract compared to the absolute control show a mortality percentage greater than 83% and the control without application present a mortality percentage greater than 86.75% on mealybug. When performing the mean test, it was determined that the doses of lorocco leaf extract that presented the highest mortality over mealybug were 200 ppm, 225 ppm and 250 ppm lauric acid since statistically they are the same and presented mortality percentages from 95, 97.5 and 98.75%.