Bioactivity of Medicinal Plant Extracts from Peganum Harmala and Cichorium Intybus Against Tribolium Castaneum Herbst (coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

The increase in grains production would hardly have any significance, unless protected from the post-harvest losses. One of the insect pests that cause severe qualitative and quantitative losses to stored grains is Tribolium castaneum. For decades, insecticides are being used to control insect pests, but they pose significant environmental hazards. Here, we are testing plant extracts as alternative pesticides for grain protection and the environmental safety. The ethanol and methanol extracts of Peganum harmala and Cichorium intybus were used with five different concentrations to test their insecticidal activity against T. castaneum. The extracts of both plants have shown pronounced effects on pest mortality where 40 × 103 ppm concentration of both the ethanol and methanol extracts resulted into above 80