International Journal of Bioresource Science

Botanical pesticides obtained naturally from plant-based compounds are found to be an effective alternative to conventional pesticides. Annona squamosa Linn. (Custard apple) is a potential medicinal plant (Family: Annonaceae) with diversified medicinal and pesticidal use, cultivated in all tropical and subtropical countries including India. Apart from being consumed as fruit, traditionally it is used in herbal medicines because of itsanti-microbial, cytotoxic, antioxidant, anti-tumor, insecticidal, anthelmintic activities and so on. The phytochemical investigations showed that these extracts contain acetogenins, the major secondary metabolite that probably confer their biological insecticidal proprieties. More than 400 annonaceous acetogenins have been discovered so far including their isomers. They are basically a series of C-35/C-37 natural products derived from C-32/C-34 fatty acids that are combined with a 2-propanol unit and kill the target organism by ATP deprivation. Only two botanical insecticides have been commercialized till now based on the extracts of A. squamosa that contain squamocin as active ingredient. This review will be definitely helpful for the scientists as well as the researchers dealing with Annona squamosa to know its chemistry and proper applications, as the plant appears to be highly valuable due to its medicinal and pesticidal properties.