Romanian Agricultural Research, cilt.2025, sa.42, ss.499-507, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
The harmful effects of pesticides have led researchers to find feasible, harmless, and economical alternatives. In this regard, plant phenolics have been thoroughly investigated. Storage insects, such as Sitophilus oryzae, Sitophilus granarius, and Trogoderma granarium, significantly impacted seed storage in humid areas. The cauline, phyllary and flower extracts of Carthamus dentatus were examined to identify suitable plant extracts. The experiment was conducted under laboratory conditions. Phenolic analysis indicated that chrysin was the most abundant in cauline leaves (39.58 ng/μL), while naringenin was the highest (13.20-15.66 ng/μL) in the phyllaries and flowers. The cauline leaf extract had the highest mortality rate among all the insects. The LT50 and LT90 values for the cauline leaf extract were found to be 3 and 6 days, respectively. On the other hand, the LT50 for the phyllary and flower extracts was approximately twice as long (7.55-8.72 and 8.24-8.78 days for phyllary and flower extracts, respectively). This study also demonstrated that the cauline leaf extract of Carthamus dentatus has the potential to obtain organic insecticide that can be used against the evaluated storage insects.