Repellency effect of forty-one essential oils against Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex mosquitoes

Abstract

Since ancient times, plant products were used in various aspects. However, their use against pests decreased when chemical products became developed. Recently, concerns increased with respect to public health and environmental security requiring detection of natural products that may be used against insect pests. In this study, 41 plant extracts and 11 oil mixtures were evaluated against the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus), the malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi (Liston), and the filariasis and encephalitis vector, Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae) using the skin of human volunteers to find out the protection time and repellency. The five most effective oils were those of Litsea (Litsea cubeba), Cajeput (Melaleuca leucadendron), Niaouli (Melaleuca quinquenervia), Violet (Viola odorata), and Catnip (Nepeta cataria), which induced a protection time of 8 h at the maximum and a 100% repellency against all three species. This effect needs, however, a peculiar formulation to fix them on the human skin.

Larvicidal and irritant activities of hexane leaf extracts of Citrus sinensis against dengue vector Aedes aegypti L.

“…The application of Mentha piperita oil on human skin had resulted in 100% protection till 150 min after which only 1-2 bites were reported for next 30 min [22] . Essential oils from some Verbenaceae plants have shown repellent and/ or insecticidal effects against mosquitoes [7,23] . The five most effective oils reported were those of litsea (Litsea cubeba), cajeput (Melaleuca leucadendron), niaouli (Melaleuca quinquenervia), violet (Viola odorata), and catnip (Nepeta cataria), which induced a 100% repellency against Ae.…”

“…The five most effective oils reported were those of litsea (Litsea cubeba), cajeput (Melaleuca leucadendron), niaouli (Melaleuca quinquenervia), violet (Viola odorata), and catnip (Nepeta cataria), which induced a 100% repellency against Ae. aegypti, Anopheles stephensi and Culex quinquefasciatus [7] . Petroleum ether extracts of Vitex negundo leaves offered 8 h of bite protection (2 mg/cm 2 ) by different mosquito species in the field [24,25] .…”

“…The botanical extracts from the plant leaves, roots, seeds, flowers and bark in their crude form have been used as conventional insecticides for centuries [5] . Plant products are important natural alternatives to insecticides, as phytochemicals extracted from the whole plant or specific part of the plant using different solvents may also act against mosquitoes as toxicant, growth regulators, repellents and ovipositional deterrent [6][7][8] .…”

Larvicidal, ovicidal, and oviposition-deterrent activities of four plant extracts against three mosquito species

“…Extracts from plants may be alternative sources of mosquito control agents since they constitute rich sources of bioactive compounds that are biodegradable into non-toxic products and potentially stable (Amer and Melhorn 2006).…”

Repellent and mosquitocidal effects of leaf extracts of Clausena anisata against the Aedes aegypti mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Another study reports of 20% citronella oil giving 75.7% protection against A. aegypti for 2 hours (Amer and Mehlhorn 2006). The ethanolic extract of Lippia javanica (5 mg/cm 2 ) applied topically provided 100% protection against A. aegypti for 8 hours in a laboratory study (Lukwa et al 2009).…”