Industrial Crops and Products 85 (2016) 58–62 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops and Products jo u r n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Toxicity of some essential oil formulations against the Mexican fruit fly Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae) S. Buentello-Wong, L. Galán-Wong, K. Arévalo-Ni ˜ no, V. Almaguer-Cantú, G. Rojas-Verde ∗ Instituto de Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Ave. Pedro de Alba s/n cruz con Ave. Manuel L. Barragán s/n, /Cd. Universitaria, C.P. 66450 San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, Mexico a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 26 June 2015 Received in revised form 31 December 2015 Accepted 15 February 2016 Keywords: Eugenia caryophyllus Ocimum basilicum Thymus vulgaris Anastrepha ludens Essential oil Toxicity a b s t r a c t Essential oils (EOs) extracted from Eugenia caryophyllus, Ocimum basilicum and Thymus vulgaris were evaluated for toxicity against adults of the fruit pest the Mexican fruit fly, Anastrepha ludens (Diptera: Tephritidae). The chemical composition of the EOs was also determined. The EOs of E. caryophyllus and O. basilicum contained primarily phenylpropanoids (77.58% and 72.63%, respectively), which were followed by benzoate esters (10.99%) and sesquiterpenes (6.22%) in E. caryophyllus and monoterpenes (16.65%) in O. basilicum. The EO of T. vulgaris was composed primarily of monoterpene hydrocarbons (89.39%). In ingestion toxicity assays, the EO of E. caryophyllus was the most toxic, with an LC50 of 3529 ppm, followed by the EOs of T. vulgaris and O. basilicum with LC50s of 5347 and 8050 ppm, respectively. At the highest concentration (1.5, 2.0 or 3.5% w/v), 100% mortality was observed with the three EOs in the ingestion toxicity assays. In general, the three EOs were significantly toxic to adult A. ludens. The development of a technology to incorporate the EOs into food bait could provide an alternative method to attract and kill A. ludens in field applications. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In Mexico, as in other countries, fruit flies are a significant prob- lem that can cause losses of fruit of 37%, increase marketing and production costs, affect the quality of the product and increase envi- ronmental pollution with the use of insecticides such as malathion for control of the pest. Fruit flies are also the cause of quaran- tine restrictions that limit access to production by international markets (Aluja and Mangan, 2008). The Mexican fruit fly, Anas- trepha ludens (Loew), occurs in most citrus-growing areas in Mexico and damages, among others, two of the most important fruits, i.e., orange and mango (Aluja and Mangan, 2008). Unlike the other cit- rus regions of Mexico, the problems caused by the Mexican fruit fly in the northeastern region are more severe because the fly and one of the most important wild hosts, the yellow chapote Casimiroa (=Sargentia) greggii S. Wats (Rutaceae), are native to this region. The primary damage in citrus that causes crop losses by the Mexican fruit fly is fruit drop as a result of the internal growth of larvae. To avoid this damage, a number of phytosanitary measures must be applied, which when combined, increase crop production costs. Therefore, new alternatives are required to improve or revamp the ∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +52 115281 83764537. E-mail address: grojasverde@gmail.com (G. Rojas-Verde). current strategies used for the control of Mexican fruit fly popula- tions, in addition to designing programs to prevent the dispersal of the fruit fly based on control with integrated pest manage- ment. Plant extracts are potential alternatives to currently used insecticides, and encouraging results have been obtained in sev- eral studies with some plants that have toxicological effects on flies in the family Tephritidae (Canale et al., 2013; Benelli et al., 2012). Plant essential oils are well known to have pharmacological prop- erties, including bactericidal, fungicidal, and antioxidant activities (Kalemba and Kunicka, 2003), and the secondary plant metabo- lites of these oils can also act as defense mechanisms against insect herbivores. To further our understanding of the biological effects of the essential oils of Eugenia caryophyllus (Spreng), Ocimum basilicum L. and Thymus vulgaris L., the following objectives were defined in this study: (1) determine the insecticidal properties of the oils against two-day-old A. ludens adults; (2) determine the LC50s and LC90s of the three essential oils; and (3) determine the chemical composition of each essential oil. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.02.040 0926-6690/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.