Preliminary Evaluation Of Ocimum Sanctum As Toxicant And Repellent Against Termite, Heterotermes Indicola (wasmann) (isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Abstract

In the backdrop of recent revival of interests in developing plant based insecticides, the present study was carried out to evaluate the antitermitic properties in medicinal plant Ocimum sanctum. The toxic and repellent activity of crude extracts of inflorescence, leaf, root and stem of Ocimum sanctum in different solvents i.e., hexane, butanol, chloroform, methanol, ethyl acetate and
water were studied against the termite species, H. indicola. The termite mortality was observed after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11th day of treatments. Results revealed that after eleven days of feeding, all extracts showed moderate toxic effect, however the maximum termite mortality (84.45 ± 27.21) was observed in the ethyl acetate leaves extract and minimum mortality (43.89 ± 39.97) was observed in stem extract of water. In each extract, mortality was significantly different from control. Also the leaves extract caused more mortality, suggesting the availability of high contents of toxic materials in leaves. All extract treated filter paper had a significantly repellent effect on H. indicola. It was also revealed that maximum repellency (29.1) was in methanol root extracts while water extracts showed minimum repellency (21.3).