Searching for antifedant compounds against greater wax moth Galleria mellonella larvae from some Thai plants

Abstract

Preliminary studies on antifeedant activity of seventeen ethanolic crude extracts from some Thai plants were conducted against the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella Linn. According to the preliminary results, the rhizomes of Zingiber cassumunar Roxb. looked promising and were chosen for further investigation. By using antifeedant activity as a bioassay guide, veratraldehyde and curcumin where isolated from hexane and dichloromethane crude extracts, respectively. Other active principles were confirmed to be in the ethyl acetate fraction. Moreover, the structure and activity relationship study of veratraldehyde and related compounds provided information on the other two active compounds, piperonal and 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde against G. mellonella, 96.9 % and 73.6 %, respectively at dose level 0.25 % wt by wt.