Secondary Metabolites Versus Synthetic Chemical Pesticides: Towards a Better Future

Glycoalkaloids and glucosinolates are plant’s bioactive secondary metabolites, which have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and insecticidal activity. We examined what effects are caused by potato, tomato, nightshade and horseradish extracts and by their respective main secondary metabolites on wild-type Drosophila melanogaster. All extracts caused significant effects. They decreased the number of organisms, but increased the speed of development of those which survived. Such effects were also observed in the next generation but they were less pronounced when fruit flies were reared on isolated phytochemicals, highlighting the synergistic interactions among the bioactive compounds. The imagoes of both tested generations, exposed either to the extracts or to the single metabolites showed malformation and had lower survival ratio than control ones