Plant extracts as potential mosquito larvicides

Autor(es): Ghosh Anupam, Chowdhury Nandita, Chandra Goutam


Resumo: Mosquitoes act as a vector for most of the life threatening diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, chikungunya ferver, filariasis, encephalitis, West Nile Virus infection, etc. Under the Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM), emphasis was given on the application of alternative strategies in mosquito control. The continuous application of synthetic insecticides causes development of resistance in vector species, biological magnification of toxic substances through the food chain - adverse effects on environmental quality - non target organisms including human health. Application of active toxic agents from plant extracts as an alternative mosquito control strategy was available from ancient times. These are non-toxic, easily available at affordable prices, biodegradable - show broad-spectrum target-specific activities against different species of vector mosquitoes. In this article, the current state of knowledge on phytochemical sources - mosquitocidal activity, their mechanism of action on target population, variation of their larvicidal activity according to mosquito species, instar specificity, polarity of solvents used during extraction, nature of active ingredient - promising advances made in biological control of mosquitoes by plant derived secondary metabolites have been reviewed.


Palavras-Chave: Insecticides; Integrated mosquito management; Larvicides; LC 50; Plant extracts


Imprenta: The Indian Journal of Medical Research, v. 135, n. 5, p. 581-598, 2012


Descritores: Chikungunya virus - Viral infections ; Chikungunya Virus - Virus ; Chikungunya virus - Chikungunya fever ; Chikungunya virus - Dengue ; Chikungunya virus - Public health


Data de publicação: 2012