ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 4(10), 1778-1784 1778 Journal Homepage: - www.journalijar.com Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/1986 DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/1986 RESEARCH ARTICLE BOTANICAL PESTICIDES: AN UPCOMING TOOL FOR PLANT PROTECTION. Meena Khetrapal 1 and Lata Vodwal 2 . 1. Department of Chemistry, Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. 2. Department of Chemistry, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Manuscript Info Abstract ……………………. ……………………………………………………………… Manuscript History Received: 12 August 2016 Final Accepted: 13 September 2016 Published: October 2016 Key words:- Botanicals, Conventional pesticides, Environmental hazards and Natural enemies. Over the years, heavy reliance on conventional synthetic pesticides in the cultivation of crops has led to several unforeseen environmental problems such as rapid development of resistance in pests, suppression of parasitoids, predation, increased insect outbreaks, environmental and food chain contamination. To avoid all the demerits of chemicals used as commercial pesticides, an integrated strategy for crop pest control which includes biological control and chemical pesticides including “Botanicals” needs to be developed. So, extensive studies have been carried out on the use of plant derivatives both as crude preparations and as commercial formulations against the control of pest population without affecting their natural enemies. Copy Right, IJAR, 2016,. All rights reserved. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:- By considering the continuing rapid increase with the rate of world population and the further decreasing rate of world lands, it is necessary to produce more and more economic crops in order to balance the economy of our country 1 . It has been quantified that with current pest control technologies, yields are 30-35% less on an average, than they would be in the absence of pests. Pests are organisms which not only cause quantitative losses, but also affect the quality of agricultural product which may become noticeable through deterioration of taste, fibre strength, processing characteristics, seed germination, etc. It has been found that about 2.5 million tons of pesticides are used to eradicate the pest population each year and the worldwide loss caused by these pesticides reaches $100 billion annually. This happens due to the non-biodegradable and high toxic properties of these conventional pesticides which are also left as residues in soil, crops and water resources that directly or indirectly affect the public health. The long term negative effects of using pesticides did not begin to surface until 1950s. In the year 1962, Rachel Carson‟s book „silent spring’ provided the general public with the first warning that many pesticides produce undesirable side-effects on our environment 2 . Further consequences of over-reliance on pesticides became apparent over the next few decades. For example, prior to 1940s, it was estimated that insects destroyed 7% of the worlds, crops; by the late 1980s, crop destruction due to pests had arisen to 13%. This doubling of crop damage since the pesticides revolution occurred despite a 12- fold increase in pesticides use 3 . The increase in crop destruction is due, in part, to increased incidence of “secondary pest out breaks”, “pesticides resistance” and “natural enemy destruction”. These problems, coupled with increasing environmental concern and pesticides costs, have forced growers to seek more environmentally safe and cost-effective pest control strategies. Thus, on one hand, one needs to search the new, highly selective and biodegradable components to rectify the problem of long term exposure of mammals to toxic chemicals; on the other hand, one must develop the, „ eco-safe’ pesticides and also improve the techniques which help to minimise the use of commercial pesticides for maintaining the crop yields. In this regard, Corresponding Author:- Lata Vodwal Address:- Department of Chemistry, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India.