~ 942 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2019; 8(1): 942-948 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2019; 8(1): 942-948 Received: 16-11-2018 Accepted: 18-12-2018 Tanmaya Kumar Bhoi Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Neha Trivedi Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Hemant Kumar Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Ipsita Samal Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Aditya Kumar Tanwar Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Fazil Hasan Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Mukesh K Dhillon Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Correspondence Tanmaya Kumar Bhoi Division of Entomology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India Components of host plant resistance to insect pests with specific emphasis on spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus in maize Tanmaya Kumar Bhoi, Neha Trivedi, Hemant Kumar, Ipsita Samal, Aditya Kumar Tanwar, Fazil Hasan and Mukesh K Dhillon Abstract The spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is an important pest of maizein Asia. Host plant resistance is one of the effective way to minimise crop losses due to insect pests. Various morphological and biochemical factors of host plant lead to the development of resistance/ susceptibility in insects. The host plant resistance can be studied through the establishment and orientation behaviour which may be constitutive or induced.Biochemical constituents both in terms of quantities and proportions to each other in host plant have a great influence on growth, development, survival and reproduction of insects. More importantly, the performance and abundance of herbivores is attributed to the variations in host plant quality being determined by nutritional composition, allele chemistry and specific anatomical features The ROS react with wide range of molecules leading to membrane destruction, lipid peroxidation, causing pigment co-oxidation and membrane destruction. In order to compensate oxidation burst due to production of ROS, plants have evolved complex protective mechanism for scavenging ROS, which include small molecular antioxidants and enzymatic components. In this series there are several naturally occurring plant cell antioxidants/enzymes like catalases, ascorbic acid oxidase, ascorbic acid peroxidase, phenyl ammonia lyase and tyrosine ammonia lyase; and constitutive plant defense compounds such as phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, chlorophyll and carotenoid derivatives which could be potential plant defence factors against herbivores. Keywords: Chilopartellus, maize, host plant resistance Introduction Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crop among the cereals occupying third rank globally in area and production next to rice and wheat. Maize grain is used for various purposes including food, feed, green cobs, popcorn, baby corn, sweet corn, fodder, starch and several industrial products, depending on the socioeconomic conditions and regions of the population (Kumar et al., 2014). It has very high yield potential, there is no cereal on earth which has so immense potentiality and that is why it is called ‘queen of cereals’.It is grown on an area of 8.85 million ha with annual production of 22.84 million tones in India (ASG, 2016), 75% of which is being used as poultry feed and human food, and rest 25% for animal feed and industrial purposes (Dhillon and Gujar, 2013) [19] . The grain yields of traditional maize genotypes under subsistence farming conditions are quite low (2.17 t/ha) in India because of several biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the biotic stress, most important constraints responsible for low yield is damage by various insect pests. The insect pests damage the maize crop from sowing to till harvesting and even in storage. Maize is damaged by 139 species of insects during different growth stages, of which only 10 insect species cause economic damage (Dhillon et al., 2014) [20] . Based on the insect feeding habit and crop growth stage, these can be categorized into various categories such as roots (wire worms, white grub and root worm), leaves (stem borer, thrips, spider mites, army worm, grasshopper and aphids), stalks (stem borer and termites), ears and tassels (stem borer, army worm, and ear worm), grain during storage (grain weevil, grain borer and Indian meal moth) damaging insect pests. Among the stalk feeding insects, spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) pose a great challenge to increase productivity potential of this crop (Kanta et al., 1997; Dhillon et al., 2014) [20] . The spotted stem borer, C. partellus is an important pest of maize in several Asian and African continents. It causes yield loss of about 18 to 25% under different agro-climatic conditions in Asia and Africa (Dhaliwal et al., 2015; Dhillon and Chaudhary, 2015) [18] . This pest remains active in the field from March to November, and maximum damage is experienced in the month of August.