Evaluation of Five Medicinal Plant Extracts on (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Its Predator, (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) Under Laboratory Conditions

Botanical insecticides that degrade rapidly are safer than persistent synthetic chemical insecticides, less harmful to the environment, decrease production costs and are not likely to cause insecticide resistance among pests. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of five different botanical extracts on the bean aphid, and the 2nd larval instar of the green lacewing, under laboratory conditions. Also, the flavonoids in the methanolic extracts of these tested plants were detected using HPLC analysis. The data from the HPLC analysis indicated that the tested plants differed in their flavonoid components. The total flavonoids were 869.4, 1125.6, 721.4, 1667.8 and 2025.9 mg/kg in , , , and , respectively. Moreover, there were many variations among these plants in the amount of each compound. The lethal concentration (LC) value of extract on aphids was the lowest among all of the plants (128.546 µg/mL) followed by (626.461 µg/mL). Also, the LC value of extract on the 2nd larval instar of (232.095 µg/mL) was significantly lower than those of all other four plant species extracts, while the other four plants did not show significant differences among them according to relative median potency analyses. Accordingly, extract had a strong effect on aphids and was safest for the predator. This finding suggests that could be exploited and further developed as an effective plant extract-based insecticide to be utilized in integrated pest management (IPM) programs against .