Botanicals: A Path to Greener Pest Control?

Plant extracts or purified plant components, known as botanicals, are increasingly employed as biopesticides in agronomy to address a wide spectrum of applications, including eliciting plant responses and serving herbicidal, fungicidal, insecticidal, bactericidal, virucidal, and nematicidal purposes. These botanicals offer several advantages, such as generally low toxicity to users and consumers, minimal ecotoxicity, and good biodegradability. Although these botanicals have great potential and could, in some cases, prove to be more effective than synthetically produced pesticides, certain disadvantages may arise. Many questions could indeed be raised about their use, particularly regarding their sustainability. In this presentation, we will endeavor to address questions such as:

• Should agricultural land be utilized to grow plants for protecting other plants?
• Is it necessary to excessively harvest naturally growing plants to produce botanicals?
• Should wood or other fossil energy sources be used in tropical regions for distilling plants?
• Are biopesticides, whose co-formulants are mostly derived from chemical synthesis, truly sustainable?

In exploring these considerations, various approaches can be examined:

• The use of by-products or invasive tropical plants as starting plant material.
• The direct utilization of whole plant parts rather than essential oils.
• The co-cultivation of essential oil plants in horticultural plots, protecting consumable plants from insect pests, and subsequently generating essential oil for additional income.
• The study of induced allelopathic traits where crops produce their own metabolites, reducing weed germination and growth.

The utilization of plants to protect other plants through the valorization of botanicals is a compelling subject that draws upon various disciplines, with potential applications in both Northern and Southern countries. However, a substantial journey lies ahead to gain a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms at play and to develop sustainable valorization strategies to replace conventional pesticides with bio-based solutions.