Abstract

Bean crop occupies a prominent place in medium and large farming units in Brazil. Most of the time, the success of this crop depends, among other factors, on the use of good quality seeds at sowing; which requires strict quality control, harvesting, and storage. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of leaves and shells extracts of Aspidosperma pyrifolium Mart., Anadenanthera colubrina and myrtle (Licania rigida benth) in controlling Zabrotes subfasciatus associated with bean seeds and to evaluate the seeds treated and stored in pet bottles for a period of 180 days. The experiments were conducted in the Agricultural Products Storage and Processing laboratory of the Federal University of Campina Grande. It was observed that for leave extracts, germination decreased with storage time for all the extracts and the best germination percentage (95.00%) occurred in 5 ml of A. pyrifolium Mart. leaves extract. These results found for the bark extract A. pyrifolium Mart. showed that germination was 94.00% in the seeds treated with 5 ml dose of this extract. On the other hand, the extracts that had lower efficiency on germination were the extract of myrtle leaf and bark which showed 64.00 to 65.40% germination in 180 days of storage. It is concluded that low percentages of infestation show the efficiency of the extracts tested in the control of insects. The efficiency of these extracts may be due to the action of their secondary metabolites; especially the extracts of A. colubrina’s leaves and bark.

Key words: Bioactive plants, bean weevil, stored seeds.