Journal of FARM SCIENCES, Vol 32, No 2 (2019)

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Studies on the extra foliar supplementation of Ferula asafoetida L. and Allium sativum L. extracts on growth, development, disease incidence and cocoon parameters of silkworm, Bombyx mori L.

K. H. SHIVAMMA, G. M. PATIL

Abstract


Mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori (Linn.) (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) is an economically important monophagousinsect, grows by feeding the leaves of mulberry. The success of quality silk cocoon and silk production depends onnutritional value of mulberry leaf. Hence, the present investigation was made to study the impact of supplementation ofmulberry leaves with Ferula asafoetida (Hing) and Allium sativum (Garlic) extracts to increase growth parameters, antimicrobialactivity and cocoon traits of silkworm. The silkworm larvae fed on mulberry leaves treated with 0.10 per centconcentration of Everest asafoetida significantly increased mature larval weight (53.40 g/10 larvae), silk gland weight (0.96g/10 silk glands),cocoon weight (19.15 g/10 cocoons), shell weight (3.48 g/ten empty shells), pupal weight (15.67 g/10pupa), shell percentage (18.18 %), filament length (963.20 m), fibroin (78.66 %), sericin (21.34 %) and denier (3.22) whencompared to garlic extracts and control treatments. In the present study the Everest asafoetida extracts proved to havegrowth promoting effect in silkworm which helped to improve the growth and cocoon parameters of Bombyx mori (L.).

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