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Cowpea is an essential pulse food in several regions throughout the world. Essential oil isolated from Thuja orientalis unripe fruits exposed to gamma radiation at dose levels of 0, 1, 3 and 5 kGy was evaluated as cowpea seed protectant against Callosobruchus maculatus and Callosobruchus chinensis.

Cowpea seeds were treated with three rates of the oils from non-irradiated and irradiated fruits, 0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 g kg⁻¹. Mortality of C. maculatus and C. chinensis adults after 3 and 7 days, progeny reduction and weight loss of cowpea seeds after 45 days were recorded for all treatments.

The pronounced mortality of C. maculatus adults was achieved at the highest rate 3.0 g kg⁻¹ of the irradiated oil with 5 kGy (98.3%). While in the case C. chinensis, all tested application rates induced marked adult mortality and a complete mortality (100%) resulted at two application rates (0 …