AN IN-SILICO APPROACH TO PROVE

INSECTICIDAL ACTIVITY OF COMPOUNDS

IDENTIFIED FROM BANANA PEELS
Dharanyaa G, Sindhudevi C, Praveena A
Department of Biotechnology, Prathyusha Engineering College
ABSTRACT:

Food waste is considered as non-useful materials by many people. But it is not the
case; food wastes such as peels of various fruits can be useful in variety of
applications like in industries for the generation of electricity, as a natural water
purifier and the peels of citrus fruits can be used as insecticides and mosquito
repellants. In the present study, the banana peels was taken as a source from which
the insecticidal activity was studied. The compounds in banana peels were
analyzed by Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Totally we
isolated eight compounds from banana peels. Out of which we selected three
compounds that are predicted to have insecticidal activity using Tice rule for
analyzing insecticide-likeness of compounds. We chosen a pest named as
Helicoverpa armigera which feeds on a wide range of plants, including many
important cultivated crops. It is also known as cotton bollworm, corn earworm, old
world (African) bollworm. It is a major pest in cotton and one of the most
polyphagous and cosmopolitan pest species. Through insilico studies, the structure
of important enzyme targets such as Acetylcholinesterase, Carboxylesterase and
Serine protease of Helicoverpa armigera was predicted and the molecular
interaction was studied using docking. The docking studies results proved the
promising insecticidal activity against Helicoverpa armigera, which can be further
developed to discover a novel insecticide against Helicoverpa armigera.