Phagodisuasive effect of plant extracts on gray slug feeding and phytochemical screening

Abstract

The slugs are considered as one of the main pests worldwide. These are economically important for the damage they cause by feeding on leaves, stems, bulbs, flowers, roots, and seeds of many cultivated plants. The management of the populations of these pests in Venezuela is limited to the use of toxic baits, which are harmful to different organisms. It is necessary to look for efficient agroecological alternatives in the production of healthy foods. With this problem, the objective of this work was to evaluate the phagodisuasive effect of plant extracts on gray field slug (Deroceras reticulatum) feeding and phytochemical screening. For the feeding activity of the slug, a test will be used without the possibility of choice or not preference. Aqueous extracts of Capsicum pubescens, Calotropis procera, Artemisia vulgaris, Azadirachta indica, Plectranthus amboinicus, and Ruta graveolens were prepared. Each extract was applied to white cabbage discs, for slug food; the cabbage disks of the control were treated with distilled water. Also, the presence of secondary metabolites in the six evaluated species of plants was determined. The aqueous vegetable extracts applied to the white cabbage leaf disks showed different degrees of effectiveness, on the feeding activity of slugs, with respect to the control. Only the aqueous extracts of R. graveolens, A. indica and C. pubescens showed the deterrent potential of the feeding of D. reticulatum. Steroids and saponins were the most abundant metabolites in the plant species.