8. Phytochemicals for the Management of Stored Product Insects

Phytochemicals are produced by plants which possess bioactive compounds responsible for plant defence against pests, pathogens, and other natural enemies. India is one of the mega diversity countries in the world, having many kinds of medicinal and aromatic plants. Bioactive compounds from plants will serve as a raw material for phytoinsecticides. It has several advantages over chemical insecticides in terms of biodegradability, safe to non-target organisms, and can be easily extracted from the locally available plant sources. It is an essential component in the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of field and also stored product pests. Phytochemicals from neem, pyrethrum, sabadilla, and ryania based products are commercially available and are used for the management of agricultural pests. There is a huge demand to develop and employ phytochemicals for the management of stored pests since stored insect pests cause severe damage to the stored produce. The stored product pests reduce the quality of produce, contaminate the produce with uric acid and exuvia, and also produce allergens which results in reduction of commercial value of the products. There is a great potential to use phytochemicals for the management of stored pest and to develop commercial formulations for the benefit of the human beings. The identification of suitable plant material, developing suitable extraction method, proper testing against target organism, and developing formulations are important for integrating these phytochemicals in the IPM of stored product pests.