Source: SEAMEO BIOTROP's Research Grant | 2015
Abstract:
Disorders that frequently found in food
and feed during storage is due to insect infestations. The most common method
applied in warehouse management is the surface spraying and fumigation using
phosphine fumigant. The use of phosphine as a fumigant for more than 60 years
led the development of resistant strains to stored-product insects. Therefoe, alternative
fumigant is needed to manage these resistant strains of stored-product insects.
One potential alternative to replace the
phosphine as a fumigant to be applied in food and feed warehouses is essential
oils. The research aims: (1) to collect samples of stored-product insects from food
and feed storages in West Java, DKI Jakarta and Banten and tested their
resistance against phosphine, (2) to explore the potency of essential oils distilled
from cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom as a fumigant against stored-product insects,
and (3) to conduct a fractionation of effective essential oils and testing the
active fraction: cloves and mint, against two categories of stored-product insects:
phosphine resistant and non-resistant strains. This research was conducted
through four stages of activities: (1) collecting stored-product insects from
warehouses of food and feed in the provinces of DKI Jakarta,
Banten and West Java, (2) testing the resistance level of those insects against
phosphine, (3) exploring the potency of essential oils distilled from aromatic
plants to be used as alternative to phosphine, (4) testing the effectiveness of
essential oils against collected stored-product insects. The result showed that
5 of 6 samples of stored-product insects were known to be resistant against
phosphine. Hexane fraction of clove oil was more effective against test insects
compared to its crude oil. Essential oils of nutmeg, cardamom, and cinnamon were
more effective against non-resistant T.
castaneum compared to the resistant one. All of those three essential oils were
effective against Callosobruchus maculatus with a dose of 0.065 mL / L
fumigation chamber.