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Journal of Mosquito Research
2013, Vol.3, No.14, 97-104
http://jmr.sophiapublisher.com
Research Report
Open Access
Screening of Local Plants for Their Repellent Activity against Mosquitoes
(Diptera: Culicidae)
B. Sai Shankar , T. Saravanan , M. Ragavi , G. Kaviya , Ankita Anushree , D. Arul Samraj , Samuel Tennyson
Department of Zoology, Madras Christian College, Chennai 600 059, Tamil Nadu, India
Corresponding author email: samtennyson@gmail.com;
Author
Journal of Mosquito Research, 2013, Vol.3, No.14 doi: 10.5376/jmr.2013.03.0014
Copyright
© 2013 Sai Shankar 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.
Abstract
A preliminary screening was carried out on five plants
viz
.,
Azadirachta indica, Citrus medica
,
Murraya koenigii,
Ocimum tenuifloreum
and
Ricinus communis
for their repellent activity against mosquitoes. The repellent activity was studied under
natural conditions in the field making use of the traditional knowledge as background. Field observations were undertaken in houses
wherein dried powdered plant leaves each (250 g) burnt on glowing charcoal produced smoke act as a repellent mosquitocide.
Results indicated that among the five plants utilized,
Azadirachta
indica
,
Murraya
koenigii
and
Citrus medica
provided repellence
with a protection time of six hours followed by
Ricinus
communis
and
Ocimum
tenuifloreum
with four hours. Besides these, the
incidence of mosquito bites significantly reduced after usage of plant products. It may be concluded that natural products from plants
of insecticidal and medicinal values have higher efficiency in reducing mosquito menace due to their repellent toxicity. Further
studies on the in-depth laboratory and field bioassays are needed as the present study indicated the scope to use local plants to control
and repel mosquitoes
.
Keywords
Mosquitoes; Plants; Repellent activity
Introduction
Prevention of man mosquito contact is indispensible
for protection from mosquito-borne diseases and uses
of repellents have been advocated for the same. Insect
repellents date back to ancient times, with the use of
tars, smokes, plant oils and other modalities (Peterson
and Coats, 2001). In recent years, new synthetic
repellents have been formulated and advocated.
However, continuous and indiscriminate use of these
synthetic repellents causes adverse effects on the user
(Mandal, 2011). There has been a paradigm shift
towards botanicals to overcome the problems
associated with the use of synthetic compounds. Plant
products have been used traditionally to repel and kill
mosquitoes in many parts of the world. Thousands of
plants have been tested as potential sources of insect
repellents (King, 1954; Jacobson, 1990; Sukumar et al.,
1991). Plant based products have been used as
repellents either as topical applicant (Samuel et al.,
2012a) or fumigant and many plant species have been
screened for their repellent and insecticidal property
against mosquitoes (Sukumar et al., 1991; Shalan et al.,
2005; Sakthivadivel and Daniel, 2008; Govindarajan
and Sivakumar, 2011; Kamaraj et al., 2011; Samuel et
al., 2011, 2012a,b,c,d; Ghosh et al., 2012; Ravindran et
al., 2012).
Repellent properties are reported in plants
viz
.,
Eucalyptus
maculate
citriodon
against
Anopheles
gambiae
and
Anopheles
funestus
(Trigg, 1996),
Pelargonium
reniforme
against
Anopheles
arabiensis
(Govere et al., 2000),
Curuma
longa
,
Cymbopogon
winterianus
and
Ocimum
americanum
against
Aedes
aegypti
,
Anopheles
dirus
and
Culex
quinquefasciatus
(Tawatsin et al., 2001),
Mentha
piperita
against
Anopheles annularis
,
Anopheles
culicifacies
and
Culex
quinquefasciatus
(Ansari
et
al
., 2000),
Litsea
cubeba
,
Melaleuca
leucadendron
,
Melaleuca
quinquenervia
,
Viola
odorata
and
Nepeta
cataria
against
Aedes
aegypti
,
Anopheles
stephensi
and
Culex
quinquefasciatus
(Amer and Mehlhorn, 2006).
Cymbopogon winterianus
and
Tagetes minuta
showed
good repellency effect against
Anopheles
stephensi
,
Aedes aegypti
and
Culex quinquefasciatus
(Tyagi
et al
.,
Preferred citation for this article:
Sai Shankar et al., 2013, Screening of Local Plants for Their Repellent Activity against Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), Journal of Mosquito Research,
Vol.3, No.14 97-104 (doi: 10.5376/jmr.2013.03.0014)
Received: 22 Nov., 2013
|
Accepted: 05 Dec., 2013
|
Published: 30 Dec., 2013