Due to potential health and environmental risks of synthetic pesticides, coupled with their non-selectivity and pest resistance, there has been increasing demand for safer and biodegradable alternatives for insect pest management. Botanical pesticides have emerged as a promising alternative due to their non-persistence, high selectivity, and low mammalian toxicity. Six Meliaceae plant species, Azadirachta indica, Azadirachta excelsa, Azadirachta siamens, Melia azedarach, Melia toosendan, and Melia volkensii, have been subject to botanical pesticide evaluation. This review focuses on Melia volkensii, which has not been intensively studied. M. volkensii, a dryland tree species native to East Africa, has shown activity towards a broad range of insect orders, including dipterans, lepidopterans and coleopterans. Its extracts have been reported to have growth inhibiting and antifeedant properties against Schistocerca gregaria, Trichoplusia ni, Pseudaletia unipuncta, Epilachna varivestis, Nezara viridula, several Spodoptera species and other insect pests. Mortality in mosquitoes has also been reported. Several limonoids with a wide range of biological activities have been isolated from the plant, including volkensin, salannin, toosendanin, trichilin-class limonoids, volkendousin, kulactone among others. This paper presents a concise review of published information on the phytochemical composition and potential of M. volkensii for application in insect pest management.

The African sweet potato weevil, Cylas puncticollis, and fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, are insect pests of economic importance that have a negative impact on sweet potato and maize production, respectively. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of Melia volkensii extracts to protect sweet potato and maize plants against damage by both insect pests. We evaluated extracts from the bark, leaves, pulp and nuts of Melia volkensii for antifeedant activity against C. puncticollis and S. exigua (used as a substitute for S. frugiperda), under laboratory conditions. Interestingly, extracts of all plant parts showed antifeedant activity. These results led us to investigate the effectiveness of nut and pulp extracts to protect sweet potato and maize crops in greenhouse conditions. Against C. puncticollis, the sweet potato plants treated with nut extracts showed the lowest tuber damage (18%) when compared to pulp extracts (30%), positive control (33%) and negative control (76%). Nut extracts, pulp extracts and positive control reduced maize leaf and whorl damage by S. frugiperda compared to the negative control. Altogether, this study highlights the potential of M. volkensii extracts and their application in integrated insect pest management

The gas phase ion chemistry of coumarins using electron ionization (EI), positive chemical ionization (PCI) and negative chemical ionization (NCI) in a time of flight and quadrupole mass spectrometer (qMS) coupled to a gas chromatograph is outlined. The observations in NCI mode were complimented with Ab initio calculations. This was because NCI gave enhanced signals in contrast to EI and PCI and therefore could serve as a potential ionization method for quantitative analysis. For the two classes of analytes that were examined here, i.e. methyl and acetyl coumarin derivatives, experimental data showed that the methyl derivatives underwent dissociative electron capture to produce ions of the type [M–H]¯ while the acetyl derivatives underwent resonance electron capture to produce ions of the type M˙¯. The M˙¯ type of ions were more intense than the earlier. Ab initio calculations showed higher electron affinities in the acetyl than the methyl derivatives. KEY WORDS: Coumarins, Ab Initio calculations, Electron ionization, Positive chemical ionization, Negative chemical ionization Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2015, 29(3), 473-484. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v29i3.15