Porphyrins and Related Compounds as Photoactivatable Insecticides I. Phototoxic Activity of Hematoporphyrin Toward Ceratitis capitata and Bactrocera oleae

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Abstract
The photodynamic sensitizer hematoporphyrin (HP) IX was efficiently accumulated by Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly) and Bactrocera oleae (olive fly) when the insects were fed with a sugar/protein bait containing micromolar amounts of porphyrin. Hematoporphyrin appeared to be mainly accumulated in the midgut, Malpighian tubes, adipose tissue and cuticle and was gradually cleared from the organism in a 24-48 h time interval. Exposure of the HP-fed flies to light mimicking the solar spectrum caused a decrease in the survival whose extent was modulated by the HP concentration in the bait, the irradiation fluence rate and the total light dose. For 8 mumol/mL HP in the bait 100% mortality during 1 h exposure to light was obtained using a fluence rate of 1220 microE s-1 m-2 for C. capitata and 2080 microE s-1 m-2 for B. oleae. The latter fly was somewhat less photosensitive than C. capitata possibly owing to the smaller amount of ingested HP and/or darker pigmentation. Studies are in progress in order to extend these investigations from the laboratory to the field scale.

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