Efficacy of Lepidagathis alopecuroides Extracts as Wood (Bombax buonopozense) Preservative against Termites (Macrotermes malaccensis) Attack

Cold and hot extracts of Lepidagathis alopecuroides were obtained using water, petroleum spirit and methanol as extracting solvents. The extracts were diluted to different concentrations (0.025, 0.035, 0.045 and 0.055 mg/L) and a control (0.00 mg/L). The extracts were then applied on completely dried pieces of Bombax buonopozense wood and stuck in the ground near an anthill and allowed to stand for six weeks. The protection of the wood was measured by the rate of non-consumption of the wood. It was observed that the protection of the wood from termites attack by the extracts were concentration dependent. In the cold extract, methanol gave 95.23 ± 7.55% protection at the highest concentration (0.055 mg/L) followed by the value at 0.045 mg/L (65.08 ± 9.20%) as against the control value of 10.50 ± 0.00%. Cold petroleum spirit extract at the highest concentration gave 86.60 ± 9.34% protection while, the cold water extract at the highest concentration gave 88.88 ± 16.32% protection. In the hot extraction, extracts from methanol gave 46.20 ± 10.21% at the highest concentration; petroleum spirit gave 57.38 ± 7.71% protection while, hot water extract gave 53.19 ± 7.25% protection. The results showed that cold extracts of Lepidagathis alopecuroides from the various solvents were more potent in the wood (Bombax buonopozense) protection than the corresponding hot extracts. We can infer that some of the active components in the plant are volatile. The plant Lepidagathis alopecuroides can be recommended as potent, new wood preservative.