In this research, the efficacy of plant extract from Datura stramonium L. (Solanaceae) was tested against the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), for its toxic and antifeedant activity. | H. ABBASIPOUR, M. MAHMOUDVAND, F. RASTEGAR, M. H. HOSSEINPOUR Research Article Turk J Agric For 35 (2011) 623-629 © TÜBİTAK doi: Bioactivities of jimsonweed extract, Datura stramonium L. (Solanaceae), against Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Habib ABBASIPOUR1,2,*, Mohammad MAHMOUDVAND3, Fahimeh RASTEGAR1, Mohammad Hossein HOSSEINPOUR1 1 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Shahed University, Tehran - IRAN 2 Agriculture Section, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Shahed University, Tehran - IRAN 3 Department of Plant Protection, Khorramabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad - IRAN Received: Abstract: In this research, the efficacy of plant extract from Datura stramonium L. (Solanaceae) was tested against the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), for its toxic and antifeedant activity. The dried and powdered plant was extracted with 150 mL of absolute ethanol (99%, Merck) using a rotary evaporator extractor at 45 °C. Experiments were designed to measure the nutritional indices, such as relative growth rate (RGR), relative consumption rate (RCR), efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), and feeding deterrence index (FDI). Treatments were evaluated by flour disk bioassay in the dark at 27 ± 1 °C and 60 ± 5% RH. Aliquots of 10 μL of acetone (control) or acetone extract (947-3007 mg L-1) were spread evenly on the flour disks. The solvent was allowed to evaporate, and then 10 adult insects were introduced into each treatment. After 72 h, nutritional indices were calculated. On the basis of the designed experiments, the calculated lethal concentrations of LC50 and LC90 of D. stramonium were 3936 and 15373 mg L-1, respectively. Results indicated that nutritional indices varied significantly as plant extract concentrations increased. As the concentration of D. stramonium increased, RGR, RCR, and ECI indices were reduced, and the most .
