Essential Oils against the Bio-Deteriorating Insect Pests of Stored Food Commodities

Plant-based essential oils (EOs) are emerging as promising alternatives to chemical insecticides worldwide against stored food insect pests. EOs are plant secondary metabolites containing a mixture of various aromatic and aliphatic compounds that play crucial role in plant defense and signaling processes. Coleoptera followed by Lepidoptera are the most destructing insect orders causing huge loss to stored food items worldwide. A plethora of research and review articles have been published reporting the efficacy of different EOs against them in various methods like contact toxicity, fumigation toxicity, repellent activity, oviposition deterrent activity, ovicidal activity, larvicidal activity, pupaecidal activity and antifeedant activity. However, most of the studies focused only on one or two insect pests or one or two methods. The present chapter aims to furnish short information on various important stored product insect pests as well as efficacy of different EOs against them in various ways as analyzed in different research studies. Further, future research studies concerning the use of EOs as insecticides should focus on detailed investigations in the real food system and their safety profile, an area that needs more research input.