i am interested in knowing the shelf-life enhancing mechanisms of botanical preparations. if they have to be freshly prepared, whether the leaves can be stored as powders so that as and when required one can use them for fresh preparations.
in this to maintain efficacy, what needs to be done? and how long can he powders be stored?
Thank you Aqleem Abbas ji and Bhavin mehta for your responses. when i searched for the information related to my query, in majority of the cases it was suggested to use the dried powders as the compounds would be stabilised. Majority of them are related to ayurvedic and herbal medicine. in this context i would like to ask, whether these unstabilised compounds play a major role in pest management ? if someone wants to use them at a later stage, in the form of dry powders only it is possible. so, any research done in this aspect or published papers would be of help. if you have access would you share please?
We have experience with a dry powders of a biofungicide Gluticid produced by a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PSS, which has a very good activity against phytopatogenic fungi during more than 6 month.
Dear Diaz ji,
Thank you for your response. Generally the beneficial microbes are formulated either in powder forms or in liquid forms. the protocols etc are standardized. for botanicals, fresh preparations are currently widely practiced in agriculture. however i am interested to know about the dry powders (botanicals) if any one has tried. for example, Vitex leaves are used for making a decoction to manage sucking insects. so instead of fresh leaves, can the leaf dust (dried leaf powder) be used to make the decoction? if so what would be the variation between the fresh one and the dried powder?
regards
Hello Chandra:
Fresh ethanolic extractions can be made from dried powder of the plant material you want to evaluate. This technic is widely used in plant protection in order to concentrate secondary plant metabolites. You can test and spray different concentrations of this botanical preparation against pest and diseases on crops.
Good luck
Luis Miguel
Among the rural farmers, the neem product with the highest percentage of usage is raw leaf and dry leaf powder used against stored grain pests. We applied dry powders of neem leaves, which protects the seeds against stored insect pests for a period of more than 8 months. However, Drying of leaves under direct sunlight could result in photothermal degradation. Therefore, it should be shade-dried (5 - 7 days), and then grounded into powder.
Thank you for your responses Dr Luis Miguel and Dr Sikha Deka. Regarding fresh methanolic extracts, we can't use them across the plants. can we? some metabolites are water soluble, some are soluble in organic solvents. is there any difference in Ethanolic and methanolic extract?
Sikha madam, it is a well known practice that dried leaves are used in storage pest management. My question was for field crops and on increasing the shelf life of botanicals.
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