Chemical Composition and Insecticide Activity of Essential Oil of Mesosphaerum suaveolens Against Nauphoeta cinerea

Abstract

Essential oils are compounds produced by secondary plant metabolites and are found in leaf trichomes, moreover, they are characteristic because they present strong odors and present biological activities. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the insecticidal action of Mesosphaerum suaveolens essential oil against nymphs of Nauphoeta cinerea as well as to characterize the chemical constituents present in it. The EO was extracted by means of hydrodistillation and its chemical characterization was done by Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). For the biological assay against cockroaches, nymphs of 20 days old were selected for which they were submitted to different concentrations (50 - 1000 μg/mL oil per air) and mortality was evaluated over 48 hours of EO exposure. As a positive control, ethanol (C₂H₆O) was used. Have been identified 44 compounds in EO, with β-Caryophyllene (18.57%), sabinene (15.94%) and spatulenol (11.09%) being the major compounds of EO. This showed no activity against the nymphs at any of the concentrations, whereas the positive control caused mortality at all concentrations tested. Thus, the essential oil of M. suaveolens does not present insecticidal properties in low concentrations against the cockroach.