Key Laboratory of Natural Pesticide and Chemical Biology of the Ministry of Education, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Department of plant protection, Zhongkai University of Agricultural and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, China.
Toxins (Basel). 2020 Nov 21;12(11):731. doi: 10.3390/toxins12110731.
Autumn crocus ( L.) is a medicinal plant as it contains high concentrations of colchicine. In this study, we reported that the ground powder of autumn crocus bulb is highly toxic to invasive Buren, commonly referred to as red imported fire ants (RIFAs). Ants fed with sugar water containing 5000 mg/L of bulb powder showed 54.67% mortality in three days compared to 45.33% mortality when fed with sugar water containing 50 mg/L of colchicine. Additionally, the effects of short-term feeding with sugar water containing 1 mg/L of colchicine and 100 mg/L of autumn crocus bulb powder were evaluated for RIFAs' colony weight, food consumption, and aggressiveness, i.e., aggregation, grasping ability, and walking speed. After 15 days of feeding, the cumulative colony weight loss reached 44.63% and 58.73% due to the sublethal concentrations of colchicine and autumn crocus bulb powder, respectively. The consumption of sugar water and mealworm ( L.) was substantially reduced. The aggregation rates decreased 48.67% and 34.67%, grasping rates were reduced to 38.67% and 16.67%, and walking speed decreased 1.13 cm/s and 0.67 cm/s as a result of the feeding of the two sublethal concentrations of colchicine and autumn crocus bulb powder, respectively. Our results for the first time show that powder derived from autumn crocus bulbs could potentially be a botanical pesticide for controlling RIFAs, and application of such a product could be ecologically benign due to its rapid biodegradation in the environment.
秋水仙（L.）是一种药用植物，因为它含有高浓度的秋水仙碱。在这项研究中，我们报道了秋水仙鳞茎的研磨粉末对入侵的 Buren（通常称为红火蚁（RIFA））具有很高的毒性。与喂食含 50mg/L 秋水仙碱糖水的蚂蚁相比，喂食含 5000mg/L 鳞茎粉末糖水的蚂蚁在三天内的死亡率为 54.67%。此外，还评估了短期喂食含 1mg/L 秋水仙碱和 100mg/L 秋水仙鳞茎粉末糖水对红火蚁蚁群体重、食物消耗和攻击性（即聚集、抓握能力和行走速度）的影响。喂食 15 天后，由于秋水仙碱和秋水仙鳞茎粉末的亚致死浓度，累积蚁群体重损失分别达到 44.63%和 58.73%。糖水和黄粉虫（L.）的消耗量大幅减少。聚集率分别下降了 48.67%和 34.67%，抓握率分别下降到 38.67%和 16.67%，行走速度分别下降了 1.13cm/s 和 0.67cm/s，这是由于喂食两种亚致死浓度的秋水仙碱和秋水仙鳞茎粉末所致。我们的研究结果首次表明，秋水仙鳞茎粉末可能是一种控制红火蚁的植物性农药，由于其在环境中的快速生物降解，因此应用这种产品可能具有生态良性。
