Herbal Insecticide For Various Crops
About the Practice
Dalpatsingh Ghitabava Sangrol of Tuna village in Valiya taluka of Bharuch district in Gujarat uses a decoction of Morthuthu (CuSO4) and dried leaves of tobacco as insecticide for pigeonpea (Cajanus indicus) crop. About 500 g of dried leaves of tobacco is boiled in around 5-7 L of water till the quantity is reduced to half. Approximately 15-25 g of Morthuthu (CuSO4) is mixed in the filtered decoction and used as an insecticide. About 30-50 ml of the content is mixed in 12-15 L of water and sprayed on the pigeonpea crop. This was used extensively on the cotton crop eight to 10 years back but nowadays cultivation of cotton has reduced remarkably so the use of this treatment has also been reduced. Most farmers use the extract of naffatiya or water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) leaves in the pigeonpea crop. Sometimes, the residue of tobacco, such as stem, small and fallen leaves left in the field after harvesting is used instead of costlier leaves. Residue of tobacco is collected in bulk from harvested tobacco fields and boiled in water. The filtered suspension is sprayed directly without any adulteration with water on the crop. This practice is in use for a very long time in this area and requires a lot of physical labour to prepare. Some farmers also use this extract on coconut seedlings and okra.
About the Innovator
Agro-Ecological Zone: South Gujarat Zone (GJ-2)
Address: Tuna, Valiya, Bharuch
District: Bharuch
State: Gujarat
PIN Code 393135
Practice Details
Crop: Pigeonpea
Crop Family: Fabaceae
Crop Scientific Name: Cajanus cajan
Crop Vernacular Name: Arhar, Tuvar, Chori, Tuver, Tur, Tur Daal
Formulation: Morthuthu (CuSO4) and dried leaves of tobacco as insecticide for pigeonpea (Cajanus indicus) crop. About 500 gm of dried leaves of tobacco is boiled in around 5-7 L of water till the quantity is reduced to half.
Ingredients: Dried leaves of tobacco, Morthuthu, extract of naffatiya or water spinach (Ipomoea aquatic) leaves and water.
PAS 1:
"Evaluation of the tobacco plant as botanical pesticide [1994] - The effectivity of tobacco spray and tobacco leaf dust against insect pests of tomato, cowpea, mungo, eggplant, garlic and corn under field conditions was evaluated. Tobacco aqueous spray was prepared from ground tobacco leaves at 1:10
tobacco: water ratio. Ground tobacco leaves were used as powder dust. Water alone and two standard insecticides, Lannate and Decis, were used as controls. Treatments were applied at 10 days interval. Tobacco spray was effective against beanfly and bean aphid with a population reduction of 89 percent and 97 percent, respectively. Tobacco dust was effective against tomato cutworm and beanfly reducing their populations by 89 percent and 79 percent, respectively. Leafhopper, thrips and corn earworm were reduced by 50-69 percent using either tobacco spray or dust. Corn and tomato yields from plots sprayed with tobacco extracts amd cowpea yield from dusted plots were comparable to those sprayed with the check insecticides."
https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=PH9610779
"Development of Concentrated Emulsion containing Nicotiana tabacum Extract for Use as Pesticide - Using herbs as an insecticide or pesticide is well known in traditional agriculture. They are biodegradable and also friendly to environment. However, developing of commercial product from herbal plants was limited due to degradation of active ingredients, the variation of active content and there is no standard procedure for quality control. In this research, crude extracts of tobacco leaves (Nicotiana tabacum Linn., Solanaceae) containing nicotine as an active ingredient were studied for developing as concentrated emulsion preparation. Crude tobacco extracts from 95% ethanol were obtained as a brown syrupy mass with strong odors and 19.55% yield. One of the active ingredients, nicotine was selected to be used as a marker in suitable high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system in this study. The tobacco extract was stable under acid, base and heat conditions. Therefore, it was selected for further development as a concentrated emulsion formulation. The concentrated emulsion of tobacco extract composed of 10% w/w nicotine was prepared by combining fixed oil (palm oil), emulsifiers (Tween and Span), giving a more physically stable product. Under room temperature and 70 % RH for 6 month, the overall of % amount of nicotine in the product still remained in acceptable level. In the next step, the product was studied in the field with various dilution ratios of water to find out a suitable concentration of product using in agriculture field. It showed that all of the exhausted died and the plants trials are still green and not burned when the dilution is 100 time of its product."
https://www.japsonline.com/admin/php/uploads/1101_pdf.pdf
"Copper sulfate is a naturally occurring pesticide and can be found in plants, soil, food, and water. It is a combination of sulfur and Copper sulfate is an herbicide, bactericide, and fungicide for control of fungi, algae, roots, and bacteria"
http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/cuso4.html#:~:text=Copper%20sulfate%20is%20a%20naturally,combination%20of%20sulfur%20and%20copper.&text=Copper%20sulfate%20is%20an%20herbicide,algae%2C%20roots%2C%20and%20bacteria