The use of synthetic pesticidesusage to prevent cowpea weevils have been reported to be harmful, sometimes leading to the demise of consumersby ingestion of contaminated grains. To save lives, efforts are intensely made to seek after safer alternatives one in particular, is the use of plant based biopesticides. A study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of N hexane and ethanol extracts of both sesame (Sesamum indicum) leaf and seed and;Trichilia heudelotii leaf to control Callosobruchus maculatusinfesting grains of cowpea. The methods employed involved dressing cowpea seeds (100 g) with the botanical crudeextracts at 0 (control), 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 ml respectively. Next, six pairs of newly emerged adult C. maculatus were introduced into glass vials containing treated seeds in three replicatesand observation was conducted for; adult mortality; emergence of larvae, pupae, and new adults of the insect;weight loss of cowpea grains; and qualitative phytochemical screening. The results presented in this paper revealed that the N-hexane and ethanol extracts of both sesame and T. heudelotii were significantly (p < 0.05) effective mostly at 1.5 ml in controlling the weevil when compared to the control. The phytochemical analysis indicated the presence of some useful bioactive compounds in the extracts.The observation on weight loss of cowpea revealed that all the various treatment especially at 1.5 ml sustained a significant (p < 0.05) weight compared to the control (mean = 40.00) which was lower. A plausible usage of homemade biopesticide using sesame and T. heudelotii could be suggested as additives to cowpea grains in the control of C. maculatus.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Botany |
Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 25, 2020 |
Submission Date | June 7, 2020 |
Published in Issue | Year 2020 Volume: 34 Issue: 3 |
Selcuk Agricultural and Food Sciences is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY NC).