Phytochemical composition, in vitro bioactivity evaluation and in silico molecular docking study of fruit essential oils of Zanthoxylum armatum DC collected from Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India

The present research aimed to analyze the nematicidal and insecticidal activity of the essential oil obtained from the fruits of Zanthoxylum armatum collected from Gumma village of Dharchula and Chandak village of Pithor-agarh. After extraction via hydro distillation, the essential oils were subjected to GC-MS for their compositional analysis. A total of 10 and 13 components were identified for the Dharchula and Pithoragarh collection respectively. Linalool (32.86 %) was the major component in collection from Dharchula whereas it was totally absent in that of collection from Pithoragarh which has trans-sabinene hydrate (11.7 %) as its major component. Essential oils were tested against Meloidogyne incognita for their nematicidal activity and inhibition of egg hatching in laboratory conditions. It was found that the activity of Z. armatum from Dharchula shows high mortality of Meloidogyne incognita and more inhibition to the egg hatching. When tested for insecticidal activity against Lipaphis erysimi, collection from Dharchula presented stronger activity compared to Pithoragarh collec-tion as shown by their LC50 values 0.006 and 0.165 mu L/mL respectively after 36 hrs. The in silico PASS study and molecular docking study was conducted to screen the nematicidal and insecticidal potential of the major com-ponents on acetylcholinesterase receptors. Results showed good binding affinities and attributed the strongest inhibitory effect to verbenone for the target protein.