Biogenic silver nanoparticles mediated stress on developmental period and gut physiology of major lepidopteran pest Spodoptera litura (Fab.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)-An eco-friendly approach of insect pest control

- High stable monodispersive, uniform silver nanoparticles synthesized from peel extract of pomegranate.
- Biogenic silver nanoparticles arrested and restricted the developmental process and the gut physiology of Spodoptera litura.
- This present finding will be helpful to develop pomegranate mediated nanoparticles as green pesticide against Spodoptera litura associated with economic important crops.

In the present work, laboratory trial was carried out to determine the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles on Spodoptera frugiperda-21cell lines (SF-21) by MTT assay, developmental influence and gut physiology like nutritional index parameters approximate digestibility, efficiency of conversion ingested and digested food, gut enzymes, gut microbiota against major lepidopteran polyphagous pest Spodoptera litura (Fab.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Silver nanoparticles synthesized from Pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel extract and the various analytical techniques used to characterize the synthesized nanoparticles revealed the uniform, monodispersive, highly stable particles with the size range of 14-28 nm. Nanoparticles at different concentration tested on SF-21cell lines and life stages of Spodoptera litura revealed that the nanoparticles were highly effective against all the tested parameters as dose dependent manner by showing effective inhibition of cell viability on SF-21 cell line, larval and pupal mortality, least lethal concentration 50 (LC50), lethal time 50 (LT50), reduced larval, pupal period, reduced adult emergence and adult longevity. Gut physiology study on third instar of Spodoptera litura showed distinct reduction effect on all the tested parameters.

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