Mihai Gidea, Emil Stepan, Lenuta Iulia Epure, Mihaela Niculesu, Carmen Gaidau and Doru Gabriel Epure
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Bucharest, Romania
Following the continuous increase of population, the request for assuring the enough food is a fundamental objective for all farmers. In these conditions is increased as well the request for ecological food production. Answering to this problem, the objective of this research paper was to establish if the microencapsulated essential oils, obtained by us in the experiments at laboratory scale, may be used to protect the wheat seed from attak of pathogens and pests in soil after seeding. The research was performed in laboratory and in experimental field.
The laboratory research was focused on microencapsulation of essential oils and on testing the phytotoxicity effect of microcapsule upon the wheat seeds and as well for test upon the population of melolontha melolontha(MM) larvae stage I, II. The microcapsules were obtained by a process of complex coacervation, and they have a central core formed by an essential oil, covered with a shell made of crosslinked hydrolyzed collagen. In the experimental field was evaluated the intensity of pests attack frequency. The results of phytotoxicity tests show that all the products used in seed treatments don't have any phytotoxic influence at the used doses, on the contrary we identified a stimulating effect upon the plant growth.
The researches regarding the influence upon the MM populations show the products with essential oil from thymus vulgaris, satureja hortensis, Ocimum basilicum decreasing the intensity of attack by comparing with control variant without any treatment. By comparing with control treated using imidacloprid, in laboratory, the efficacy of treatment was around 50% from that one.
In the experimental field we found the decreasing significantly of dipterus attack frequency. Analyzing the results obtained in this research we can said: "all the seed treatments based on own microencapsulated essential oils, can be used successfully for wheat pest protect in ecological system"
Keywords: Amino acid extract, microencapsulated essential oil, wheat, ecological production, crop protection.