AUTHOR(S)
K. Karthikairaj, L. Isaiarasu and N. Sakthivel*

ABSTRACT

Sericulture isan ideal enterprise which fits into the socio-economic fabric of India.Improvements in the quantity of silk cocoons and quality of silk depend on thequality of mulberry leaves given to the silkworm and can be achieved by thesupplementation of mulberry leaves with extra nutrients. However, the mulberrysilkworm, Bombyx mori L. is prone to infection of severalmicrobial pathogens resulting heavy loss in the silk output. Among the majordiseases of the silkworm, bacterial flacherie have been found to be very commonin our region and investigation of the haemolymph collected from the diseasedsilkworm revealed that the cultured colony was that of Staphylococcus sp. accordingto its morphological characters. Assessment of the antibacterial activity ofsome herbal extracts prepared from Acalypha indica, Leucas aspera and Ocimumsanctum for the containment of these microbes was then made in ourlaboratory. It was observed that both aqueous and alcoholic extracts of theseherbs proved to be effective against Staphylococcus sp. infectingmulberry silkworm Bombyx mori L. In this context, the alcoholic extractsproduced maximum zone of inhibition against these microbes in the culture platethan the aqueous extracts and that the extracts of Leucas aspera arevery effective against these microbial pathogens followed by the extracts of Ocimumsanctum and Acalypha indica. It is thus inferred that such effectsof herbal extracts could be exploited to control microbial pathogens at thetime of silkworm rearing and to get improved silk production.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.57182/jbiopestic.7.0.89-93

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