Larvicidal Activity of Essential Oils of Five Apiaceae Taxa and Some of Their Main Constituents Against Culex quinquefasciatus
Language English Country Switzerland Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article
- Keywords
- Culex quinquefasciatus, Five Apiaceae taxa, essential oils, larvicidal activity, selected main constituents,
- MeSH
- Apiaceae chemistry MeSH
- Culex drug effects MeSH
- Insecticides chemistry isolation & purification pharmacology MeSH
- Larva drug effects MeSH
- Oils, Volatile chemistry isolation & purification pharmacology MeSH
- Dose-Response Relationship, Drug MeSH
- Structure-Activity Relationship MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Insecticides MeSH
- Oils, Volatile MeSH
Apiaceae are aromatic herbs producing essential oils which are used on an industrial scale for various purposes. Notably, Apiaceae essential oils may replace synthetic insecticides keeping most of their efficacy and avoiding environmental pollution and human poisoning. In the present work, we explored the insecticidal potential of the essential oils from five Apiaceae taxa, namely Sison amomum, Echinophora spinosa, Heracleum sphondylium subsp. sphondylium, Heracleum sphondylium subsp. ternatum, and Trachyspemum ammi, as well as their major constituents (sabinene, p-cymene, terpinolene, myristicin, and thymol), against the filariasis vector Culex quinquefasciatus. For the purpose, the essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation and their composition was achieved by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Their acute toxicity on third instar larvae of C. quinquefasciatus was determined. The two most active essential oils were those from T. ammi fruits and E. spinosa roots, showing LC50 below 20 μl/l and LD90 below 50 μl/l. These oils were dominated by the monoterpene phenol thymol and the phenylpropanoid myristicin, respectively, which showed the strongest larvicidal activity (LC50 of 15.1 and 16.3 μl/l, respectively) among the pure compounds tested. These results showed that Apiaceae may be useful as source of larvicidal compounds to be used for the development of cheap, effective and eco-friendly insecticidal formulations.
Crop Research Institute Drnovska 507 161 06 Prague 6 Czech Republic
Department STEBICEF University of Palermo Viale delle Scienze Parco d'Orleans 2 90128 Palermo Italy
School of Pharmacy University of Camerino Via Sant'Agostino 1 62032 Camerino Italy
References provided by Crossref.org
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