International Journal of Plant Protection

R. Nisha ¹, D. S. Rajavel ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Crop Protection, Imayam Institute of Agriculture and Technology, Kannanur, Thuraiyur, Trichy (T.N.), IN
2 Department of Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam, Tuticorin (T.N.), IN

Abstract

Tomatine is a glycoalkaloid found in the stems and leaves of tomato plants, which has fungicidal properties. This laboratory studies were carried out to find out the efficacy of tomatine on the Termitomyces fungus found in the termitaria of O. wallonensis, it was applied through Difco media for fungal growth. The overall period of observations (15 days) revealed that tomatine 1000 ppm effectively reduced the mean diameter growth of fungus (1.41 cm) followed by tomatine 900 ppm (1.52 cm). The fungal growth of fungus in the standard check carbendazim 500 ppm was 1.32 cm whereas it was 8.17 cm in untreated check. The highest suppression of fungus was noticed in carbendazim 500 ppm (84.59 %) which was on par with tomatine 1000 ppm (83.44 %). Tomatine 900 ppm was also suppressed the fungus effectively at 82.08 per cent. The least mean per cent suppression (68.37 %) was noticed in the lower concentration of tomatine 600 ppm. The per cent suppression of fungal growth was decreased from 5^th day to 15^th day of observation. This study was supported by many earlier contributions. Finally the result was concluded that tomatine could be used as a termiticide to control fungus growing termites.

Keywords

Tomatine, Subterranean Termites, Termitaria, Termitomyces.

Full Text

     

R. Nisha ¹, D. S. Rajavel ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Crop Protection, Imayam Institute of Agriculture and Technology, Kannanur, Thuraiyur, Trichy (T.N.), IN
2 Department of Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam, Tuticorin (T.N.), IN

Abstract

A secondary alkaloid, tomatine was extracted from unripen fruits and leaves of tomato. It is a potent antifungal and insecticidal compound that interacts with sterols in the membranes of the insects and shows efficacy against insects and many species of termites. In this research, investigations were carried out to study the antifeedant and repellent activity of tomatine against the termite species Odontotermes wallonensis Wasmann. The result concluded that lowest consumption of food by O. wallonensis workers was recorded in Azadirachtin 100 ppm (0.15 g) followed by Tomatine 250 ppm (0.60 g). Soldiers and nymphs of O.wallonensis consumed 0.54g and 0.56g food in tomatine 250 ppm treatment whereas in treated check (Azadirachtin 100 ppm) consumed 0.14g in both castes as compared to untreated check (1.33 and 1.46 g). And also exhibited the highest repellent activity towards termites at all the doses. Tomatine 1000 ppm caused 82.13, 73.41 and 88.67 per cent repellent activity whereas Azadirachtin 100 ppm caused 88.67, 78.96 and 92.00 per cent in O. wallonensis workers, soldiers and nymphs, respectively.

Keywords

Tomatine, Secondary Alkaloid, Termites, Azadirachtin, Repellent Activity.

Full Text