MADRE DE CACAO (Gliricidia sepium) AND BOTTLEBRUSH (Callistemon viminalis) LEAVES EXTRACT AS MOSQUITO LARVICIDE

Mosquitoes are major disease vectors, therefore keeping them under control is essential for human health. Insecticides have been shown to be effective at controlling mosquito populations, but insecticide resistance and environmental concerns are increasing. Looking for the health and environment hazards and cost of synthetic insecticides, there is a need to find a safe, practical and effective alternatives. This study aimed to determine the level of effectiveness and the presence of phytochemical analysis of Gliricidia sepium and Callistemon viminalis leaves extracts. It also included the larvicidal effect from the different extract formulations of Madre de Cacao and Bottlebrush at different instar stage of mosquito larvae. It further investigated whether there is no significant difference in the effectivity among the five different formulations of leaves extract. Results of the experiment revealed that 100% Madre de Cacao formulation were found to be very effective in killing mosquito larvae followed by 75%:25%, 50%:50%, 25%:75% while 100% Bottlebrush formulation came out as less effective. Likewise, Madre de Cacao and Bottlebrush contain sterols, flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, glycosides, tannins and triterpene that have larvicidal impact on mosquito. Finally, a significant difference exists among the different treatments. Madre de Cacao and Bottlebrush maybe recommended as home-based mosquito larvicide which were found to be not hazardous to the health of people in extracting the leaves. A community may build and designate a certain area for plantation and development of Madre de Cacao tree and other plants that potentially source of insecticides specially mosquito larvae that can lessen the harmful effects of using commercial pesticides in controlling mosquitoes.

Vascular Trouble

This chapter looks at two diseases affecting the vascular system of the cacao tree: vascular streak dieback, caused by the fungus Ceratobasidium theobromae, and wilt disease, caused by the fungus Ceratocystis cacaofunesta. Both diseases are considered as serious threats to cacao production and their impact has already been considerable and severe. Vascular streak dieback nearly destroyed the cacao industry in Papua New Guinea and is mercifully restricted to Indonesia, Malaysia, and South-East Asia, while Ceratocystis wilt has been reported in several countries in South and Central America, where it has caused substantial crop losses. The chapter examines the research being undertaken to better understand these diseases and how best to tackle them.

Chocolate Crisis

Chocolate is the center of a massive global industry worth billions of dollars annually, yet its future in our modern world is currently under threat. Here, Dale Walters discusses the problems posed by plant diseases, pests, and climate change, looking at what these mean for the survival of the cacao tree. Walters takes readers to the origins of the cacao tree in the Amazon basin of South America, describing how ancient cultures used the beans produced by the plant, and follows the rise of chocolate as an international commodity over many centuries. He explains that most cacao is now grown on small family farms in Latin America, West Africa, and Indonesia, and that the crop is not easy to make a living from. Diseases such as frosty pod rot, witches’ broom, and swollen shoot, along with pests such as sap-sucking capsids, cocoa pod borers, and termites, cause substantial losses every year. Most alarmingly, cacao growers are beginning to experience the accelerating effects of global warming and deforestation. Projections suggest that cultivation in many of the world’s traditional cacao-growing regions might soon become impossible. Providing an up-to-date picture of the state of the cacao bean today, this book also includes a look at complex issues such as farmer poverty and child labor, and examines options for sustainable production amid a changing climate. Walters shows that the industry must tackle these problems in order to save this global cultural staple and to protect the people who make their livelihoods from producing it.

Chocolate Is a Product of the Cacao Tree

This chapter looks at both the Theobroma cacao tree and its cultivation. It covers cacao botany: its unusual habit of cauliflory, where the flowers, and hence the pods, arise directly from the trunk and main branches of the tree; pollination of its flowers, which is linked with the ecology of the rain forest in which it grows; and dispersal of its seeds, which is almost unique in its dependency on vertebrate animals such as monkeys, bats, and squirrels. The chapter also deals with the cultivation of cacao, mostly by smallholder farmers on individual, family-managed farms, typically 0.5 –7 ha in size, in the lowland tropical regions of Latin America, West Africa, and Indonesia. Finally, the chapter examines the impact of the increasing demand for chocolate on the push towards the intensification of cocoa cultivation, threatening to shift production even further from the traditionally managed, sustainable cultivation systems of the past.

Sap Suckers

The cacao tree is host to some 1500 different insect species, though, mercifully, only a tiny fraction of these cause serious damage. One such group are sap-suckers known as capsids in West Africa, specifically Sahlbergella singularis and Distantiella theobromae, and mirids in Asia (Helopeltis species), and Central and South America (Monalonion species). These tiny insects are responsible for significant losses to cacao crops, resulting from direct damage through their feeding, as well as the ravages of opportunistic fungi that invade the tree via wounds caused by the mirids. This chapter looks at the biology and ecology of these sap-sucking pests and how this knowledge helps in devising control methods.