The long and challenging road to capitalize on knowledge of plant-based extracts

International audience Europe has planned to halve pesticide use by 2030 as part of the Farm to Fork strategy to achieve the European Green Deal. Global warming combined with all year-round availability of host plant for a majority of pests is likely to favor the installation of invasive alien species (IAS) in Europe. The reduction of the range of authorized chemical molecules, initially intended for the control of native species, challenges research to propose sustainable solutions to manage IAS. Plant-based products are an alternative to synthetic products, already adopted in organic agriculture, such as Tanacetum cinerariifolium (natural pyrethrum), formulated as aqueous, organic extracts, or essential oil. The knowledge-based system Knomana has identified, in the scientific literature, 397 plant species used or experimented to protect 64 crop species in Africa against pests and diseases. A knowledge mining software is being developed, based on a method derived from artificial intelligence, i.e. formal concept analysis, to propose to the final user (e.g. producer, technician) potentially usable local plants. As some IAS are coming from the African continent, using Knomana can allow European researchers to identify interesting plant species present in Europe, or plant extracts to be imported from Africa, to control IAS once their official approval is obtained. Examples are given with the Noctuidae species Spodoptera littoralis and Helicoverpa armigera, already present in Europe, or the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, that has been observed on maize in many African countries since 2016.