Study of the phytotoxicity caused by cinnamon essential oil tree-injection in apple trees as a bio-insecticide

Abstract

As a culturally and economically significant fruit tree worldwide, apple orchards protection has always been of great agronomic interest. Among its most detrimental insect pests, the rosy apple aphid (Dysaphis plantaginea Passerini) causes severe plant injuries and shows continuously increasing resistance to conventional pesticides. Commonly treated with sprayers in orchards, a trunk injection delivering system combined with an essential oil based biopesticide could be a solution to end the intensive use of conventional pesticides. With this in mind, the research conducted for this master thesis focuses on the evaluation of possible phytotoxicity induced by a cinnamon essential oil 2% emulsion in apple tree Malus domestica Borkh (var. Jonagold). To do so, physiological, biochemical and transcriptomic parameters were looked into. This phytotoxicity study was carried out both in the short and long term, on young two-year-old micropropagated apples trees conserved in environmental chambers.