Larvacidal Activity of Some Medicinal Plants Naturally Growing in Turkey Against Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

Massive use of chemical based insecticides led to detrimental effects on the public healt and environment. This situation, environment friendly and biodegradable natural products of plant origin alternatives to synthetic larvacids have received attention as agents for vector control. Thus, many researchers have studied on alternative methods for pest control instead of chemical ones. In this study, some medicinal valuable plants naturally growing in Turkey were selected for this purpose and investigated the larvicidal effect against Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus larvae. Bioassays were carried out by appliying late 3th to early 4th instar larvae of Aedes albopictus to two different dose of plant extracts. The larval mortality was counted after 24 and 48 h after experiments. Bioassay results revealed that Leucanthemum vulgare was the most effective for ethyl acetate extract in 500 ppm concentration, 100 % for 24 h, 100 % for 48 h. Salvia vertisillata induced a second high mortality after 24 h treatment for two doses of both extracts. Inula vulgaris and Matricaria chamomilla produced high and moderate mortality for 500 ppm dose of both extracts, respecitvely. Our results evidenced that the high larvicidal activity was detected products obtained from crude extracts with ethyl acateta and methyl alcohol of Salvia verticillata, Leucanthemum vulgare, Inula vulgaris and Matricaria chamomilla. But need to be further study about possible candidate species for new and safer control products against mosquito control.