To contribute to the development of new products to control the coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeella), which is a major pest for coffee plants, this work aimed to select plant species able to produce substances active against this insect and to identify the active substances in the selected plant and their protein targets in the insect. Among the extracts of nineteen plant species, only that from leaves of Merremia tomentosa (Choisy) Hall. f. (Convolvulaceae) reduced the oviposition of L. coffeella on leaves of coffee plants. This extract was submitted to successive fractionation steps to achieve the isolation and identification of two active substances, ursolic acid (UA) and cis-tiliroside (CT). An in silico study showed that UA inhibits glycogen phosphorylases (GP) by binding to their allosteric site, while CT probably inhibits xanthine dehydrogenases (XT). As both GP and XT appear to be essential enzymes for insects, these results suggest that, during evolution, L. coffeella learned to identify plants producing inhibitors of these enzymes to avoid oviposition on such plants. Thus, both UA and CT have potential to be used as lead compounds in the development of new products for the control of the coffee leaf miner.

In a previous study, substances with nematicidal properties were detected in the bark of Cryptocarya aschersoniana. Continuing such study, the methanol extract from this plant underwent fractionation guided by in vitro assays with the plant-parasitic nematode Meloidogyne exigua. Two active compounds were isolated and identified by spectroscopic methods as (E)-6-styrylpyran-2-one and (R)-goniothalamin. The latter compound was also active againstMeloidogyne incognita. In silico studies carried out with (R)-goniothalamin and the enzyme fumarate hydratase, which was extracted from the genome of Meloidogyne hapla and modeled using computational methods, suggested that this substance acts against nematodes by binding to a cavity close to the active site of the enzyme.

Filmes de nitreto de carbono, preparados por deposição assistida por feixe de íons, foram estudados pela espectroscopia de Raman e infravermelho, em função de energia de íons (200, 400, e 600 eV) e razão de chegada de íon a átomo R(I/A) de 0,9 a 2,5. A razão de composição N/C no filme, determinada por análise de detecção de recuo elástico, foi encontrada proporcional a R(I/A); porém, a formação de filme é possível somente se R(I/A) for menor do que um valor crítico da eficiência de "sputtering" químico. Esse valor encontrado foi de 0,21. O valor máximo de N/C obtido foi de 0,9 (47% atômica de nitrogênio) para o filme depositado com 400 eV. Para entender o efeito de incorporação de nitrogênio na estrutura dos filmes, os parâmetros foram determinados pela análise dos espectros Raman e encontrados fortes dependências da quantidade de nitrogênio nos filmes; os comportamentos da posição e da largura do pico G, e da razão I D/I G são correlacionados com as mudanças estruturais nos filmes.

Carbon nitride films prepared by ion beam assisted deposition were studied by Raman and infrared spectroscopy, as a function of nitrogen ion energy (200, 400, and 600 eV) and the ion to atom arrival rate ratio R(I/A) ranging from 0.9 to 2.5. The composition ratio N/C in the film determined by elastic recoil detection analysis was found to be proportional to R(I/A); however, the film growth is possible only if R(I/A) is smaller than a critical value of chemical sputtering yield. This value was found to be 0.21. The maximum value of N/C obtained was 0.9 (47 at.% of nitrogen) for the film deposited with ion energy of 400 eV. In order to understand the effect of nitrogen incorporation on the structure of the films, the parameters were determined from the Raman spectra analysis of the films and found to show strong dependences of the nitrogen content in the films; the behaviors of the G peak position and width, and I D/I G ratio are correlated with the structure changes in the films.