Medicines made from aloe vera peels can protect important food crops from harmful insects. Photo: File
Texas: Aloe vera or Ghikwara is an important medicinal plant that is also used to heal wounds and burns and to keep the face and skin fresh. Now an inexpensive, natural and eco-friendly pesticide has been made from the leaves of this magical plant. This drug is not only cheap but can kill insects on the most important food crops.
Worldwide, 20 to 40 percent of crops are destroyed by insects every year. This leads to food shortages and increases in prices while the labor of the farmer is reduced. Now a common plant like cactus, aloe vera peel can be the solution to this problem.
Dr. Debashesh Bandyopadhyay of the University of Texas and his colleagues have created a natural insecticide from useless aloe vera peels. When it was tested on maize and millet crops, the crop-eating insects ran away and the crop remained strong. Approaching insects have also been observed dying.
For further research, aloe vera peels were dried and analyzed and an important chemical, dichloromethane (DCM), was found in it, while some amounts of methanol and hexane were also found. The compound was found to destroy the ability of insects to walk, eat and reproduce.
Interestingly, the naturally occurring chemical is completely harmless not only to the farmer but also to humans who eat the crop. Thus, Aloe Vera is a completely natural and safe method that can be a cost-effective and safe alternative to toxic and environment-friendly drugs.
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