Botanical insecticides have gained interest due to a rising demand for environmentally friendly pest control methods for stored-product protection. The insecticidal effectiveness of the essential oil (EO) obtained from the oleo-gum-resin of myrrh (Commiphora myrrha (Nees) Engl.), against Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) and Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky, and the metabolic shifts of the two species, were investigated in this work. A thorough gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) investigation showed that the composition of this EO was dominated by furanosesquiterpenes, specifically, furanoeudesma-1,3-diene and curzerene. Commiphora myrrha EO treatments, especially at 1000 ppm, resulted in high adult mortality for P. truncatus (up to 85.6%), while S. zeamais showed only moderate mortality (up to 25.6%). To investigate the different species-specific effectiveness of the EO, untargeted GC-MS metabolomic profiling was conducted to elucidate the impact of the EO on the metabolism of the insects, with subsequent data analysis employing multivariate, univariate, and network methods. Each species reacts differently to the treatments (myrrh EO versus the synthetic insecticide pirimiphos-methyl (PM)), according to the analysis results. In particular, myrrh EO caused distinct shifts in metabolic pathways that varied between P. truncatus and S. zeamais. Overall, C. myrrha EO exhibits potential as a botanical insecticide, especially against P. truncatus, and it causes metabolic disturbances specific to the species. The results demonstrate the significance of metabolomic technologies in assessing bioinsecticide mechanisms and lend credence to their possible incorporation in integrated pest management methodologies or their contribution to the creation of diagnostic indicators of insecticidal exposure.

Drought poses a major threat to global food security, making it critical to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to water scarcity. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation and histone alterations, play central roles in regulating genes and hormonal pathways essential for drought adaptation. MicroRNAs, while primarily functioning as post-transcriptional regulators, can also influence epigenetic pathways and contribute to chromatin remodelling, suggesting a role in modulating epigenetic memory. Investigating these interactions is essential for understanding how plants integrate epigenetic and post-transcriptional regulation during stress. Epigenetic memory in drought-adapted plants provides insights into the transgenerational inheritance of adaptive traits and reveals how plants balance genome stability with flexibility. The crosstalk between epigenetic mechanisms and hormonal signalling is crucial for fine-tuning gene expression, promoting drought resilience. This review proposes a conceptual framework integrating epigenetic, hormonal, and miRNA-mediated regulation of drought responses. It emphasizes the impact of advanced technologies, such as bisulfite sequencing and CRISPR-Cas9, in dissecting plant epigenetic responses to drought. These approaches improve our understanding of drought tolerance mechanisms and offer promising strategies for developing resilient crops for sustainable agriculture. However, direct evidence linking epitranscriptomic modifications to long-term drought memory remains limited, and this emerging regulatory layer requires further experimental validation.