Industrial Crops & Products 182 (2022) 114817 Available online 2 April 2022 0926-6690/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Chemical composition and repellent effects of powders and essential oils of Artemisia absinthium, Melia azedarach, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and Peganum harmala on Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Imane Naimi , Manal Zefzoufi , Hafida Bouamama * , Touria Ba M’hamed Laboratory of Sustainable Development and Health Research, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech 40000, Morocco A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Tribolium castaneum Plants Powders Essential oils Repellency rate ABSTRACT Tribolium castaneum (herbst) is one of the most damaging insect pests of stored products. The aim of this study is to assess the repellent effects of powders and essential oils (EOs) of Artemisia absinthium aerial parts, Melia azedarach fruits, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and Peganum harmala seeds on adults of T. castaneum (Herbst). The EOs were extracted by the hydrodistillation method, and analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The repellency test was determined by the area preference method. The number of insects present in treated and control areas was counted after 10 min, 20 min, 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, and 5 h of exposure. The results obtained by GC-MS revealed that the major components of the studied EOs were camphor (36.22%) and α-thujone (30.28%) for A. absinthium EO. Caproic acid (8.63%) and ç-Caprolactone (9.44%) for M. azedarach EO; Epi-cubenol (28.78%), palmitic acid (15.07%), and Dihydroactinolide (10.84%) for T. foenum- graecum; and α -Pinene (29.38%), linoleic acid (14.00%) for P. harmala. The M. azedarach powder has the highest average repellency rate of 48.20%, followed by T. foenum-graecum (34.67%), while A. absinthium and P. harmala powders have the negatives average repellency rates ( 22.10% and  16.10%, respectively). Furthermore, A. absinthium EO had the highest average repellency rate of 64.50%, followed by M. azedarach and P. harmala EOs (50.30% and 46.50%, respectively). In contrast, T. foenum-graecum EO gave 33.70% of repellency. The plants studied may prove novel biological treatments to prevent insect infestations of stored products. 1. Introduction Stored food of agricultural origin is subject to numerous insect at- tacks, which cause both qualitative and quantitative losses during cultivation or post-harvest (Rajendran and Sriranjini, 2008). Post-harvest losses are in the range of 30–50% and up to 80% of total production in severe cases (Aulakh and Regmi, 2013; Kumar and Pra- santa, 2017). The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Cole- optera: Tenebrionidae), is one of the most destructive secondary pests of cereal grains (Adarkwah et al., 2010; Balakrishnan et al., 2016). The control of those pests relies mainly on synthetic insecticides and fumi- gants. However, the high operational cost and repeated application in agriculture thus result in several adverse effects, such as environmental pollution, the emergence of resistant pest strains, lethal effects on non-target organisms, and direct toxicity to the consumer (Sileem et al., 2019). Therefore, it is essential to develop effective and ecologically reliable control alternatives that respect the environment and human health. The researchers oriented their studies to biological control methods using insecticides based on botanical extracts as biopesticides that protect food during storage against insects (Adarkwah et al., 2010). Natural insecticides, biodegradable and generally less harmful to the environment or human health, constitute a rich source of bioactive chemicals that can act as fumigants, contact insecticides, repellents, and antifeedants for insects (Rajashekar et al., 2014; Zoubiri and Baal- iouamer, 2014). The present study aimed to determine the chemical composition of the essential oils and evaluate the repellent effects of powders and essential oils from four aromatic and medicinal plants: Artemisia absinthium, Melia azedarach, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and Peganum harmala against Tribolium castaneum adults. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: h.bouamama@uca.ac.ma (H. Bouamama). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops & Products journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2022.114817 Received 26 December 2021; Received in revised form 14 March 2022; Accepted 16 March 2022