Mella (Olax zeylanica) Leaves as an Eco-friendly Repellent for Storage Insect Pest Management

Among the cereals, rice is the most important staple food supplying energy requirements for mostof the worlds’ population. However during storage a loss of about 10-20% rice grains occurs due to storedgrain pests. Repellents are considered as the best source of protection against insect attack upon storedproducts as they have potential for the exclusion of stored product pests from grain, and therebypreventing insect feeding and oviposition on food materials. Various plant materials have been utilizedeffectively through time as safe and ecofriendly insect pest control measures due to their repellentactivity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of powdered leaves and leaf extractsof Olax zeylanica as repellents against the rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae. All the experiments were carriedout under laboratory conditions using 1-7 day old unsexed adults. Four different doses (1.0g, 3.0g, 5.0gand 7.0g).of powdered leaves were tested for fumigant repellency in a dual-choice bio-assay apparatus.Repellent action of leaf extracts was evaluated by means of an area preference test using methanol,ethanol and n- hexane as solvents. Repellent effect of powdered leaves against the adult rice weevils wasfound to be significantly high (P< 0.05) at all doses. The highest repellent effect was produced by 7.0g ofleaf powder resulting in repellency of 97%, while the lowest dose (1.0g) also elicited more than 50%repellency in weevils indicating a very strong repellent action of the powdered leaves. In comparison,methanol extract of leaves produced the highest repellent effect (96%) on weevils whereas n-hexaneextract elicited the lowest. Nevertheless, at higher concentrations all three extracts produced more or lesssignificantly similar repellent effect on the weevils. The findings of the present study suggest that certainactive materials of Olax zeylanica leaves have potential to act as a grain protectant and may be exploitedfor the control of Sitophilus oryzae in rice storage in an environment-friendly way. Keywords: Olax zeylanica, Sitophilus oryzae, Repellent effect, Stored rice