Insecticidal Potential of Parthenin and its Transformation Products against Tribolium castaneum (Herbst)

Parthenin was isolated from shade dried and powdered leaves of Parthenium hysterophorus using Soxhlet extraction followed by column chromatography. On reaction with diazoester its decomposed product and diazoester adduct were obtained. Anhydroparthenin was formed by reaction of parthenin with dry hydrochloric acid gas, formic acid and irradiation with microwave. Parthenin and its derivatives were characterised by spectroscopic techniques and tested for their bioefficacy against the adults of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) at four different concentrations. Parthenin was found to be most active out of all the four compounds tested. In general, higher mortality was observed as the concentration of compounds and number of days increased. All the compounds exhibited complete mortality at the spiking level of 10, 000 and 20, 000mg g⁻¹.