Males of the Oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) are highly attracted to, and compulsively feed, on methyl eugenol (ME). ME is converted into 2-allyl-4,5-dimethoxyphenol (DMP) and (E)-coniferyl alcohol (E-CF), which are temporarily sequestered in the fly’s rectal gland prior to being released at dusk. Previous research initially confirmed that DMP is a relatively strong lure to B. dorsalis males. However, the characteristics of males’ response to DMP and toxicology of DMP remains largely unclear. In our study, we demonstrated that DMP was more attractive to sexually mature males than E-CF tested in laboratory bioassays. Interestingly, the responsiveness of mature males to DMP was not uniform throughout the day, eliciting the highest response during the day and dropping to a low level at night. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the olfactory responses of virgin and mated mature males to DMP. No obvious signs of toxic symptom and deaths were observed in mice during a 14-day acute oral toxicity testing. Further, toxicologically significant changes were not observed in body weight, water intake, food consumption, and absolute and relative organ weights between control and treated groups, implying DMP could be regarded as nontoxic. Lastly, the cytotoxicity data of DMP on cells showed that it exhibited no significant cytotoxicity to normal human and mouse cells. Taken together, results from both the acute and cellular toxicity experiments demonstrated the nontoxic nature of DMP. In conclusion, DMP shows promise as an effective and eco-friendly lure for B. dorsalis males, and may contribute to controlling B. dorsalis in the flied.

东方果蝇Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) 的雄性被甲基丁香酚 (ME) 高度吸引，并强迫性地以甲基丁香酚 (ME) 为食。ME 转化为 2-烯丙基-4,5-二甲氧基苯酚 (DMP) 和 ( E )-松柏醇 (E-CF)，它们在黄昏时被释放之前暂时隔离在果蝇的直肠腺中。先前的研究初步证实，DMP 对B. dorsalis有较强的诱惑力男性。然而，雄性对 DMP 的反应特征和 DMP 的毒理学在很大程度上仍不清楚。在我们的研究中，我们证明 DMP 对性成熟男性的吸引力比实验室生物测定中测试的 E-CF 更具吸引力。有趣的是，成熟雄性对 DMP 的反应在一天中并不统一，在白天引起最高反应，而在夜间下降到低水平。此外，处女和交配的成熟雄性对 DMP 的嗅觉反应没有显着差异。在为期 14 天的急性口服毒性试验中，小鼠未观察到明显的中毒症状和死亡迹象。此外，在对照组和治疗组之间的体重、水摄入量、食物消耗量以及绝对和相对器官重量方面没有观察到毒理学上的显着变化，暗示 DMP 可被视为无毒。最后，DMP对细胞的细胞毒性数据表明它对正常人和小鼠细胞没有显着的细胞毒性。总之，急性和细胞毒性实验的结果证明了 DMP 的无毒性质。总之，DMP 显示出作为一种有效且环保的诱饵的前景B. dorsalis雄性，可能有助于控制果蝇的B. dorsalis。