Eco-friendly management strategies of insect pests: long-term performance of rosemary essential oil encapsulated into chitosan and gum Arabic

ABSTRACTThis study focused on encapsulation of Rosmarinus officinalis essential oil (EO) on chitosan and gum Arabic matrix in various ratios and with varying essential oil concentrations. Additionally, UV/VIS spectroscopy was used to determine cumulative-release profiles. The insecticidal activity was tested against Tribolium castaneum and Oryzaephilus surinamensis, both pests of stored products. In terms of encapsulation efficiency (EE%) and loading capacity (LC%), capsules had EE at 45.8% and LC at 2.31%. Furthermore, many minor compounds were lost after encapsulation, until identifying only 1,8-cineole, α-terpineol, and camphor after 60 d of storage. The fumigant tests demonstrated that encapsulated EO exhibited an effective control against insect pest during storage periods, namely, 30, 45, and 60 d with 99, 66, and 46% mortality for T. castaneum and 100, 84, 82% mortality for O. surinamensis.KEYWORDS: Microencapsulationcontrolled releasevolatile componentbio-insecticidetribolium castaneumoryzaephilus surinamensis Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author.Additional informationFundingThis research was funded by the program of Valorization of Research Results (VRR-BIOENCAP, 2020), the General Directorate of Research Promotion, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Tunisia.