The Study On The Development Of Botanical Pesticides In China

Agriculture is an important symbol of development of human civilization,and agricultural product is the essential material basis of human survival.With rapid growth of population,the first problem that must be solved is food,so food safety is the top priority of human survival.The long-term and unreasonable use of chemical pesticide has a severe impact on the quantity and quality of agricultural product,therefore,development of novel insecticide with high activity,low toxicity and broad spectrum is the hot spot to domestic and foreign scholars.China has a long history of using plants to control pests in and is the earliest country to study and use this method.The use of plant resources is the oldest and most original approach to prevent pests.As early as near 300 BC,there were records on using Mangcao,Jiacao,etc to prevent pests in China: “the Shu's Palm except poison poison,said Jia Gui to attack the grass attack,......Jian's palm beetle was in addition to Mangcao smoked,......Guo's palm go frog toad,burning Mu Ju to ash sprinkling of records”.There are many records about insecticidal plants in previous books,but we have just explored a small part of it.At present,the development of botanical pesticide industry in our country cannot meet the requirement of society,and is in urgent need of a breakthrough.In order to discover plants with high activity against pests,this study systematically screen and explore plants with insecticidal activity recorded in herbal,Chinese medicine,miscellaneous and agricultural books from the pre-Qin to the late Qing Dynasty.118 families and 385 plants having insecticidal activity was summarized,also the active sites and application methods of these plants at that time were recorded.These application in modern times of these plants in controlling pests was studied,including their active sites,processing technology,application methods,compounding methods.Finally,some insecticidal plants that are still used in private but rarely studied were summarized.These issues were systematically studied in this paper,and the development process is divided into the five stages as follow:(1)Origin of botanical pesticide(the pre-Qin).Human during this period experienced the transformation from primitive agriculture of stone implement to traditional agriculture of ironware,starting to use natural plant to kill pests.However,there plants were applied to control sanitary pests rather than agricultural pests.(2)Infancy of botanical pesticide(Qin and Han Dynasties to Wei and Jin Dynasties).Herbal,pharmacy and agricultural books appeared during this period,recording the plants and application methods for eliminating and exterminating pests in detail for the first time.(3)Development of botanical pesticide(Sui,Tang,Song and Yuan Dynasties).Since Tang Dynasty,because of development of the southern region,new type and application of botanical pesticides have emerged.The records on plants with insecticidal activity increased rapidly during this period.Plants with insecticidal activity were not only used in agricultural production,but were applied to control sanitary pest in more situations,most of which have been used so far.(4)Peak and transformation of botanical pesticide(Ming and Qing Dynasties).Plants with insecticidal activity reached a peak both in variety and application method.With chemical pesticides introduced in late Qing Dynasty,agricultural production factors,such as “new pesticide”,“new farm tool” and “new chemical fertilizer”,transformed traditional agricultural production technique in China.The use of chemical pesticide gradually exceeded botanical pesticides,reaching its prosperous period.(5)Dilemma and dawn of botanical insecticide(the Republic of China to modern times).Our country was on the way to new agriculture.Chemical insecticide began to replace botanical insecticide and was widely used.In conclusion,this article summarized the process,rule and feature of development of bo tanical insecticide,through collecting the plants with insecticidal activity recorded in the anci ent books,and dividing them based on the law of development,which aims to inspire develop ment of botanical insecticide in the future.