Antifeedants are chemicals produced by plants (phytochemicals) which repel insects through distaste. Alternative names for antifeedants are: antifeeding compounds, feeding deterrents, feeding rejectants, feeding suppressants, feeding inhibitors, gustatory repellents, phagodepressants, anorexigenics and anti-appetants.
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👉 Antifeedant in the context of Ecdysone
Ecdysone is a prohormone of the major insect molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone, secreted from the prothoracic glands. It is of steroidal structure. Insect molting hormones (ecdysone and its homologues) are generally called ecdysteroids. Ecdysteroids act as moulting hormones of arthropods but also occur in other related phyla where they can play different roles. In Drosophila melanogaster, an increase in ecdysone concentration induces the expression of genes coding for proteins that the larva requires. It causes chromosome puffs (sites of high expression) to form in polytene chromosomes. Recent findings in the laboratory of Chris Q. Doe have found a novel role of this hormone in regulating temporal gene transitions within neural stem cells of the fruit fly.
Ecdysone and other ecdysteroids also appear in many plants mostly as a protection agent (toxins or antifeedants) against herbivorous insects. These phytoecdysteroids have been reputed to have medicinal value. They are part of herbal adaptogenic remedies like Cordyceps, yet an ecdysteroid precursor in plants has been shown to have cytotoxic properties as well as antioxidant properties on lipid peroxidation.
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Antifeedant in the context of Cetyl palmitate
Hexadecyl hexadecanoate, also known as cetyl palmitate, is the ester derived from hexadecanoic acid and 1-hexadecanol. This white waxy solid is the primary constituent of spermaceti, the once highly prized wax found in the skull of sperm whales. Cetyl palmitate is a component of some solid lipid nanoparticles.
Stony corals, which build the coral reefs, contain large amounts of cetyl palmitate wax in their tissues, which may function in part as an antifeedant.