Insecticidal Activity of Artemisia frigida Willd. Essential Oil and Its Constituents Against Three Stored Product Insects

In this work, we investigated the chemical constituents of hydrodistillation essential oil from the aerial parts of Artemisia frigida Willd. All together 14 components were identified by GC-MS. Moreover, we tested the fumigant and contact activities of the essential oil and its five major individual compounds (terpinen-4-ol, verbenone, camphene, α-terpineol and α-terpinyl acetate) against Liposcelis bostrychophila, Lasioderma serricorne and Tribolium castaneum. In fumigant toxicity tests, α-terpineol possessed the strongest activity (LC50 = 3.27 mg/L air) against L. serricorne. Terpinen-4-ol exhibited the strongest activity (LC50 = 0.08 and 3.74 mg/L air respectively) against L. bostrychophila and T. castaneum. As for contact toxicity, terpinen-4-ol and α-terpinyl acetate exhibited fair toxicity against L. bostrychophila (LD50 = 33.10 and 31.80 µg/cm2 respectively) and L. serricorne (LD50 = 8.62 and 8.87 µg/adult respectively), and camphene possessed the strongest activity (LD50 = 5.13 µg/adult) against T. castaneum. The results indicated that A. frigida essential oil and its individual compounds had the potential to be developed as natural fumigants and insecticides for control of these three stored-product insects.