Termiticidal Activity of Punica granatum fruit rind fractions and its compounds against Microcerotermes beesoni.

Plant extracts may provide natural alternative to crop pest control because of their bioactive components. Moreover they are biodegradable and seem to resolve problems associated with synthetic pesticides. Punica granatum fruit rind extracted in methanol and fractionated with hexane, ethyl acetate, chloroform and water. All the solvent extracts along with partially purified column fractions were evaluated for termite mortality against Microcerotermes beesoni termite species. Methanolic, ethyl acetate extract were found to be effective however column fraction (PGR) found to be significantly effective. Moreover five compounds have also been identified from the Punica granatum fruit rind and evaluated for termite mortality against Microcerotermes beesoni termite species with Chlorpyriphos 20% TC. Although Chlorpyriphos found to be very effective none of the compound had shown comparable results but Quercetin is found to be moderately active comparative to other compounds. Five known marker compounds have been quantified in the column fraction PGR via HPLC and GC–MS. Fraction PGR has shown significant activity may be because of Quercetin found to be present in the higher amount in the column fraction PGR analyzed by HPLC and GC–MS. Punica granatum fruit rind is a waste material which can be utilized as natural termite managing agent easily available to the farmers around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]