Exploring Plant Extracts for Optimal Pest Management and Environmental Balance

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant-Crop Biology and Biochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 544

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Botanical Application, PostGraduate Program in General Biology/Bioprospecting and PostGraduate Program in Entomology and Biodiversity Conservation, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Federal University of Grande Dourados, Dourados 79800-000, Brazil
Interests: phagodeterrent; biological activities; antibiosis; bioinsecticide; antifeedant; antixenosis.
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In agricultural production and ecological environment protection, pest control has always been an important topic. Although traditional chemical pesticides can effectively control pests to a certain extent, they also bring many problems, such as environmental pollution, increased pest resistance, and harm to non-target organisms. As people pay more and more attention to the ecological environment and food safety, finding more environmentally friendly, safe, and effective pest control methods has become a research hotspot.

Plant extracts such as alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, volatile oils, and other compounds do not remain in nature after their application, which drastically reduces the chances of environmental contamination and promotes higher rates of environmental preservation. In addition, these chemicals are less toxic and better suited to the economic conditions of small farms due to the usual presence of several bioactive compounds, low persistence in the environment, and generally low cost of use, especially for small farms with limited income. Thus, an option that meets these conditions is the prospection of plants, which has aroused great interest in the possibility of discovering new bioactive compounds in order to originate, for example, botanical insecticides. These act synergistically, presenting attractive, dislodging, or repellent characteristics with phagodeterrent action. In addition, they include substances capable of altering the growth and development of some insects, many of them being produced in response to insect attack, and thus employed in the control and monitoring of insect pests. Another aspect of this topic worth considering is that the utilization of plants with insecticidal properties sees their use facilitated in the form of crude extracts, which is an option for farmers who exploit small areas, and also in protected crops. However, even before all the advantages presented by several authors in their studies became apparent to the research community, the use of plants in the control of insects already required research to discover what aspects are related to the effects of botanical insecticides on non-target organisms. In this research topic, we invite the submission of articles focusing on all types of plant–insect interaction, evaluating the chemical compositions of plants and their function on pest management and environmental protection.

We welcome all types of articles published by Agronomy that contribute to (but are not limited to) the following topics:

  • Pest–plant interactions: the abilities of each;
  • Phytochemical components and biological activity of plant extracts;
  • Sustainable agriculture practices;
  • Pest management and control;
  • Biochemical, physiological, and molecular mechanisms of insects against botanical insecticides;
  • Insect response to botanical insecticides in agroecosystems;
  • Impact of botanical insecticides on natural enemies and microorganisms on overall insect biodiversity in agroecosystems;
  • Evolutionary mechanisms of insect adaptation to deal with botanical insecticides.

Prof. Dr. Rosilda Mara Mussury
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • plant extracts
  • pest management
  • ecology
  • bioinsecticide
  • alternate control
  • agroecological

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 1027 KiB  
Article
Green Solutions for Agriculture: Topical and Oral Effect of Botanical Extracts in the Sustainable Management of Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae)
by Isabella Maria Pompeu Monteiro Padial, Silvana Aparecida de Souza, Claudia Andrea Lima Cardoso, Juliana Rosa Carrijo Mauad, Anelise Samara Nazari Formagio and Rosilda Mara Mussury
Agronomy 2025, 15(6), 1464; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15061464 - 16 Jun 2025
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Abstract
The growing demand for sustainable phytosanitary products has renewed interest in botanical insecticides as viable pest control tools. Amid rising demand for sustainable crop protection, this study screens Cerrado plants traditionally used in medicine to pinpoint bioactive compounds that could replace synthetic pesticides. [...] Read more.
The growing demand for sustainable phytosanitary products has renewed interest in botanical insecticides as viable pest control tools. Amid rising demand for sustainable crop protection, this study screens Cerrado plants traditionally used in medicine to pinpoint bioactive compounds that could replace synthetic pesticides. These products have complex chemical compositions, with compounds acting synergistically through multiple mechanisms, including oral (ingestion of allelochemicals) and topical (contact of allelochemicals on epidermis) toxicity. This study evaluated the oral and topical toxicity of aqueous leaf extracts from Anemopaegma arvense (AEAa), Coussarea hydrangeifolia (AECh), Tapirira guianensis (AETg), and Duguetia furfuracea (AEDf) on Plutella xylostella. In the oral toxicity test, first-instar larvae were fed treated diets until pupation, with biological parameters monitored until adulthood. The extracts caused an average of 45% larval mortality, reduced pupal duration, and lowered egg production. In the topical toxicity test, only the extract from T. guianensis showed significant effect (p = 0.0171), causing 30% mortality in third-instar larvae. The other extracts showed no significant topical toxicity, and AECh showed no lethal or sublethal effects at all. Phytochemical screening was assessed by quantitative spectrophotometric assays, and semi-quantitative classical colorimetric tests. Major compound classes identified were tannins, flavonoids, triterpenoids, coumarins, and alkaloids. These findings highlight the potential of the evaluated plant extracts for pest control, particularly via ingestion, while also underscoring the need for further studies to better understand their efficacy and mechanisms of action. Full article
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