Location: Natural Products Utilization Research
Project Number: 6060-32000-002-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Apr 1, 2015
End Date: Nov 18, 2019
Objective:
Objective 1: Discover new insecticidal active ingredients that are based on natural products and that are safe with respect to occupational exposure and with respect to the environment, including non-target effects.
Subobjective 1.1: Discover novel arthropod repelling biopesticides from mosquito repelling folk remedies.
Subobjective 1.2: Discovery of fungal compounds and natural product analogs with activity against permethrin-resistant and susceptible mosquitoes.
Subobjective 1.3: Discover novel bioinsecticide active ingredients from crude plant and fungal extract screening and bioassay-directed fractionation.
Objective 2: Participate in development of new products based on green biopesticides.
Subobjective 2.1: Develop and optimize fatty acids as natural topical and spatial arthropod repellents.
Subobjective 2.2: Development and optimization of the chromene derivative 131-1 as a biopesticide.
Approach:
A bioassay-directed investigative approach will be performed on bioactive extracts in efforts to discover bioinsecticides and repellents for use against arthropod pests. General procedures for isolation of active compounds from plants and microbes will be utilized. Solvent extractions, liquid-liquid partitioning, column chromatography and thin layer chromatography will be employed as needed. Extracts, fractions and pure compounds will be tested for insecticidal and insect repellent activity in assays being carried out routinely at collaborator's laboratories. Identification of active compounds will be done using spectroscopic methods including mass spectroscopy (EI, CI, and high resolution ESI), Nuclear magnetic resonance (one- and two-dimensional). Chemical modification will be performed on compound(s) identified as "highly active" to improve activity or bioavailability.
