Differential larvicidal efficacy of four species of Vitex against Culex quinquefasciatus larvae

Abstract

The early fourth instar larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus, reared in the laboratory were used for larvicidal assay with leaf extracts of Vitex negundo, Vitex trifolia, Vitex peduncularis and Vitex altissima. The methanol extracts of the four species possessed varying levels of larvicidal nature. The highest larvicidal activity was found with the extract of V. trifolia (LC(50) = 41.41 ppm) followed by V. peduncularis (LC(50) = 76.28 ppm), V. altissima (LC(50) = 128.04 ppm) and V. negundo (LC(50) = 212.57 ppm).

Rapid in vitro propagation system through shoot tip cultures of Vitex trifolia L.–an important multipurpose plant of the Pacific traditional Medicine

“…The aerial parts of this plant are useful in the treatment of diabetes (Pullaiah and Naidu 2003). Besides, the plant also possesses larvicidal, wound healing, anti HIV, anticancer, trypanocidal, antibacterial and antipyretic activities (Li et al 2005;Woradulayapinij et al 2005;Kannathasan et al 2007;Manjunatha et al 2007).…”

Strong larvicidal activity of three species of Spilanthes (Akarkara) against malaria (Anopheles stephensi Liston, Anopheles culicifacies, species C) and filaria vector (Culex quinquefasciatus Say)

“…This is in sharp contrast to the earlier report of Pitasawat et al (1998) where the LC50 value was 61.43 ppm from the extracts of S. acmella L. This may be due to the variation in the species/ locality of the source material, as the synthesis of bioactive .14 a LC50 Lethal concentration that kills 50% of the exposed larvae b LC90 Lethal concentration that kills 90% of the exposed larvae c χ 2 Chi-square, df degree of freedom d FL Fiducial limits compounds is regulated by different stress factors, such as soil temperature, soil type, pressure and overall climate of the area (Sukumar et al 1991). Nevertheless, this system has proved to be much more effective over other plant systems reported earlier (Rahman et al 2000;Siddiqui et al 2003;Kannathasan et al 2007), where significantly higher doses of plant extracts were required for achieving 100% lethality against C. quinquefasciatus (LC50=41.41 and 129.24 ppm) and A. stephensi (LC50=16 and 79.58 ppm) larvae from Vitex, Azadirachta and Feronia plant extracts, respectively. However, during current investigations, a minimum of 4.57-, 0.87-and 3.11-ppm (LC50) doses proved effective rendering this as the most potential system for biocontrol of such vectors.…”

“…However, some recent reports have appeared on the larvicidal activity of plant extracts of other species, e.g. Vitex (Kannathasan et al 2007), Azadirachta indica (Siddiqui et al 2003) and Feronia limonia (Rahman et al 2000), but their lethal doses (LC50 and LC90) were very high. In this paper, we report extensive investigations of the larvicidal efficacy of the crude extracts of three Spilanthes species tested against A. stephensi Liston, A. culicifacies species C and C. quinquefasciatus Say mosquito larvae, where 100% mortality was achieved with abysmally much lower doses.…”

A validated high performance liquid chromatography method for determination of three bioactive compounds p-hydroxy benzoic acid, negundoside and agnuside in Vitex species

“…V. negundo and V. trifolia are the major plants among Vitex species [37]. Because of the increasing interest in herbal preparations from Vitex species, their standardization is becoming increasingly important.…”