Novel bioproducts from lavander to be tested against Myzus persicae Sulzer (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Sustainable agriculture aims at integrating three main objectives: a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. Floriculture represents an important sector of agriculture where sustainable cultivation practises must also provide final products in perfect condition. In order to reduce the harmful effects of pesticides, EU legislation has reduced the number of active substances permitted for use in pest management. It is thus important to identify natural bioproducts with potential to control pests, diseases, or to stimulate growth in ornamental plants.The green peach aphid Myzus persicae Sulzer (Homoptera: Aphididae) is a cosmopolitan species that is able to transmit viruses to a wide number of plants. It infests vegetables and ornamental plants grown in the field and in the greehouses and it manifest insecticide resistance. FINNOVER n.1195 is an EU Interreg-Alcotra project that aims to bring new perspectives to floriculture enterprises by recovering useful bioproducts from the waste produced during the distillation of essential oils from lavender and other aromatic species. The chemical analysis of this industrial by-product showed that it can be considered as an inexpensive source of phenols and flavonoids. Water wastes contained persistent amounts of volatile compounds and were also rich in sugars and compounds with a significant antioxidant activity. Pulsed ultrasound-assisted extraction was employed to extract the solid by-products, obtained after essential oils production, using food-grade solvents. DOE, UVvisible spectrometry and chemometrics were employed to optimize the extractions. All the extracts presented a promising total phenolic content (60–70 mg GAE /100 mL) and radical scavenging activity (100–150 mg AAE/100 mL). The antiprobing effect of these natural products, besides the possibility to overcome the insecticide resistance, is under evaluation. The research found that the by-products of essential oil distillation can represent a valuable, but overlooked, source of multifunctional compounds. This work was carried out with the financial support from the Interreg V-A ALCOTRA 2014–2020, Project n° 1195, FINNOVER.