Nematicidal Screening of Aqueous Extracts from Plants of the Yucatan Peninsula and Ecotoxicity.

Active metabolites from plants are considered safer than synthetic chemicals for the control of plant-parasitic nematodes of the genus . In the present work, 75 aqueous extracts (AEs) from different vegetative parts of 34 native plant species of the Yucatan Peninsula were evaluated against second-stage juveniles (J2s) of and in microdilution assays. The highest mortality (M) against both species was produced by the foliar AE from (M ≥ 94%) and (M ≥ 77%) at 3% / after 72 h. Other active AEs at 3% were from the leaves of and stems of (M: 87-90%) on and the stems of and the leaves of on (M: 92-97%). The AEs from had the lowest LD against (0.36% /), and against (3.80% /). In an acute ecotoxicity assay of the most promising AEs using non-target earthworms (), the AE of had slight acute toxicity (LD: 2.80% /), and the rest of the most active AEs were not ecotoxic. These tropical plants are potential candidates for further studies as biorational agents for controlling species.