Research and application of botanical pesticide azadirachtin

Azadirachtin is primarily known as an effective botanical insecticide, it has been widely used in field practice for more than 30 years, and plays an important role in the global crop protection and ecological security. In this review, we traced the discovered history of azadirachtin and the situation of neem introduction, and summarized the molecular mechanism inducing autophagic apoptosis, the latest progresses of molecular mechanism and biosynthesis of azadirachtin, as well as molecular biology. The neem tree, Azadirachta indica A. Juss, was first introduced by Shin-Foon Chiu's group into China in 1983, and then Chinese scholars made great efforts to introduce and breed neem tree, planted more than sixty thousand hectares of neem trees, which provided material guarantee for the large-scale production of azadirachtin pesticide in China. The commercial application of azadirachtin was authorized by China's Ministry of Agriculture(CMA) as a new insecticide in 1997. Azadirachtin had become the main low toxicity and low residue pesticide recommended by CMA in 2014, and resulted in good social and ecological benefits. Chinese scholars discovered that azadirachtin could induce autophagy in insect cell, and illuminated the molecular regulation mechanism of apoptosis and autophagy induced by azadirachtin. As strengthening the source control of quality and safety for agricultural product, the research and application of azadirachtin will be more and more widespread. The basic research should be intensified for future work to find out the molecular target of azadirachtin, which will provide a theoretical basis for scientifical application of azadirachtin.