Journal of Mosquito Research 2015, Vol.5, No.18, 1-8
1
Research Article Open Access
Larvicidal activity of
Murraya koenigii
(L.) Spreng (Rutaceae) hexane leaf extract
isolated fractions against
Aedes aegypti
Linnaeus,
Anopheles stephensi
Liston and
Culex quinquefasciatus
Say (Diptera: Culicidae)
Arivoli S.
1,
, Raveen R.
2,
Samuel T.
2
1. Department of Zoology, Thiruvalluvar University, Vellore 632 115, Tamil Nadu, India
2. Department of Zoology, Madras Christian College, Chennai 600 059, Tamil Nadu, India
Corresponding author email
Journal of Mosquito Research, 2015, Vol.5, No.18 doi: 10.5376/jmr.2015.05.0018
Received: 30 Aug., 2015
Accepted: 02 Sep., 2015
Published: 22 Oct., 2015
Copyright
©
2015 Arivoli et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Arivoli S., Raveen R. and Samuel T., 2015, Larvicidal activity of
Murraya koenigii
(L.) Spreng (Rutaceae) hexane leaf extract isolated fractions against
Aedes
aegypti
Linnaeus,
Anopheles stephensi
Liston and
Culex quinquefasciatus
Say (Diptera: Culicidae), Journal of Mosquito Research, Vol.5, No.18 1
-
8(doi:
Abstract
Mosquitoes are significant public health pests and act as a vector of several diseases
viz
., malaria, filariasis, Japanese
encephalitis, dengue fever and chikungunya, which are transmitted by the three genera of mosquitoes,
viz
.,
Anopheles
,
Culex
and
Aedes
. Mosquito control strategies have depended primarily on the use of synthetic chemical insecticides but resulted in rebounding
vectorial capacity, environmental and human health concerns. Plants may be a source of alternative agents to replace the synthetic
insecticides for mosquito control. In the present study, the isolated fractions of
Murraya koenigii
hexane leaf extracts were evaluated
for larvicidal activity against vector mosquitoes
viz
.,
Aedes
aegypti
,
Anopheles
stephensi
and
Culex
quinquefasciatus
. Six fractions
viz
., A, B, C, D, E and F were obtained from the residue of hexane extract by column chromatography. Standard WHO protocol with
minor modifications was adopted for the larvicidal bioassay. Larvicidal activity was evaluated
against the isolated fractions at
concentrations of 25, 50, 75 and 100 ppm. Larval mortality was observed 24 hours post exposure. Amongst the isolated fractions
tested, fraction ‘D’ showed 100.0, 97.6 and 99.2% mortality against third instar larvae of
Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus
and
Anopheles stephensi
at 100 ppm, respectively and LC
50
values were 35.06, 27.20 and 42.51 ppm respectively. Further investigations
are needed to explore the larvicidal activity of the isolated fraction ‘D’ of hexane leaf extract of this plant and also the active
principle(s) responsible for larvicidal activity.
Keywords
Murraya koenigii
; Larvicidal activity;
Aedes aegypti
;
Anopheles stephensi
;
Culex quinquefasciatus
1 Introduction
Mosquitoes, referred to as ‘flying syringes’ and
‘public enemy number one’ are the worst enemy of
mankind since dawn of time and act as a vector of
several diseases (Banerjee et al., 2008; Thomas et al.,
2014)
viz
., malaria, filariasis, Japanese encephalitis,
dengue fever and chikungunya, which are transmitted
by the three genera of mosquitoes,
viz
.,
Anopheles
,
Culex
and
Aedes
(WHO, 2014). Mosquitoes are
significant public health pests due to their predominance
as agents of potentially deadly pathogens of human
beings and the annoyance of skin reactions caused by
their bites (Peng et al., 1998). Since 1950s, mosquito
control strategies have depended primarily on the use
of synthetic chemical insecticides (Hemingway et al.,
2006). However, the unfriendly effect of most of these
past advocated synthetic chemical insecticides leads
the insect pest managers of the world to comb for
alternative ways of countering this disease causing
insect (Ileke and Ogunbite, 2015). Also, the long-term
stability of many of these chemical insecticides and
their tendency to bioaccumulate in non-target organisms
have fostered many environmental and human health
concerns such as the threats faced due to the
development of resistance to chemical insecticides by
the mosquitoes, resulting in rebounding vectorial
capacity (Senthilkumar et al., 2008). To bridle these
problems, safe and effective plant stratagem is in focus
against the vectors and vector-borne diseases. Plants
may be a source of alternative agents to replace the
synthetic insecticides for mosquito control (Bashir and
Javid, 2013). Bioactive botanicals are a promising
alternative for mosquito control because of lower
toxicity to non-target organisms and their innate
biodegradation ability (Isman, 2008). In recent years,
research from all over the world have documented the
