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BACKGROUND The insecticidal and repellent effects on adult Sitophilus zeamais of 12 cinnamaldehyde-related compounds was evaluated by contact toxicity bioassays and a two-choice olfactometer. To determine non-toxicity in mammals, body weight, serum biochemical profiles, liver weight, physiological parameters, sperm motility, and histopathological data were obtained as complementary information in C57BL/6 mice treated with the best natural compound. RESULTS Based on 24 h LC95 and LC50 values, α-methyl-cinnamaldehyde and cinnamaldehyde exhibited better insecticidal action than the other compounds. The best repellent effect was observed with α-bromo-cinnamaldehyde, which even repelled at the lowest concentration studied (0.28 µmol L-1 ). The evaluation of a quantitative structure-activity relationship found a linear relationship between the LC50 values for adult weevil toxicity and dipolo with Q values (giving the difference between orbital electronegativity carbon 1 and orbital electronegativity carbon 3 of the molecule) in cinnamaldehyde-related compounds. The polar surface and Log P descriptors also revealed a linear relationship with the S. zeamais repellent effect for cinnamaldehyde analogues. Cinnamaldehyde did not show toxicity in the parameters evaluated in mice. CONCLUSION From the phenylpropanoid components studied, the natural compound that had the best insecticidal and repellent action against S. zeamais was cinnamaldehyde. It presented no mammalian toxicity. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.