Gwyn P. Celo, Abraham N. Gastar, Kurt Nolan B. Lopez (March 2006)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
Termites, which are wood-eating insects, are noted for the economic damage that they cause to wood products, buildings and other wood structures. Previous studies have proven that Neem has great potential in fields of pest management, environment protection and medicine. This study aimed to determine the effectivity of Neem leaf extracts as termite repellant by using various solvents (ethanol, n-hexane and water) on the weight loss of wood.
There was seven (7) treatments used in the study, namely the ethanol extract, aqueous extract, n-hexane extract, pure water, pure ethanol, pure n-hexane and untreated setup. The extracts were applied to five (5) wood blocks in every treatment. Then the treated wood blocks were randomly placed in a chosen termite mound. The weight loss was calculated by measuring weight before and after exposure to termite mound for one (1) month.
Results of the study showed that all of the wood blocks in each setup underwent a decrease in weight as shown by the percent weight losses that ranged from 1.76% to 5.04 6%.
Post-hoc analysis using LSD showed that aqueous extract treatment has significantly greater percent weight loss than pure water treatment, and ethanol extract treatment has significantly greater percent weight loss than pure ethanol treatment. And it also showed that n-hexane extract treatment and pure n-hexane treatment has no significant difference between their percent weight losses.