Use of Novel Compounds for Pest Control: Insecticidal and Acaricidal Activity of Essential Oil Components from Heartwood of Alaska Yellow Cedar

Abstract

Laboratory bioassays were conducted to determine the activity of 15 natural products isolated from essential oil components extracted from the heartwood of Alaska yellow cedar, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D. Don) Spach., against Ixodes scapularis Say nymphs, Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothchild), and Aedes aegypti (L.) adults. Four of the compounds from the essential oil have been identified as monoterpenes, five as eremophilane sesquiterpenes, five as eremophilane sesquiterpene derivatives from valencene and nootkatone, and one as a sesquiterpene outside the eremophilane parent group. Carvacrol was the only monoterpene that demonstrated biocidal activity against ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes with LC50 values after 24 h of 0.0068, 0.0059, and 0.0051% (wt:vol), respectively. Nootkatone from Alaska yellow cedar was the most effective of the eremophilane sesquiterpenes against ticks (LC50 = 0.0029%), whereas the nootkatone grapefruit extract exhibited the greatest biocidal activity against fleas (LC50 = 0.0029%). Mosquitoes were most susceptible to one of the derivatives of valencene, valencene-13-aldehyde (LC50 = 0.0024%), after 24 h. Bioassays to determine residual activity of the most effective products were conducted at 1, 2, 4, and 6 wk after initial treatment. Residual LC50 values for nootkatone did not differ significantly at 4 wk posttreatment from the observations made at the initial 24-h treatment. The ability of these natural products to kill arthropods at relatively low concentrations represents an alternative to the use of synthetic pesticides for control of disease vectors.

Avaliação da atividade larvicida do óleo essencial do Zingiber officinale Roscoe (gengibre) frente ao mosquito Aedes aegypti

“…contra a praga em questão (Leyva, 2009;Teles, 2009). Contra o Aedes aegypti alguns estudos mostram que os componentes terpênicos, alcoóis e aldeídos dos óleos essenciais são os principais responsáveis pela atividade inseticida ou larvicida (Lucia et al, 2007;Lee, 2006;Panella et al, 2005;Carvalho et al, 2003;Araújo et al, 2003;Karr & Cotas, 1998).…”

Influence of essential oil fractionation by vacuum distillation on acaricidal activity against the cattle tick

“…microplus (Borges et al 2003;FreitasRibeiro et al 2005;Dietrich et al 2006;Ribeiro et al 2007;Fernandes et al 2008;Ribeiro et al 2008). Among them, essential oils components are known to possess repellent, chemosterilant, antifeeding and biocidal activities against different acarus, showing promissory potential as products for tick control, since some of them are selective and have little or no harmful effects on non-target organisms (Facey et al 2005;Panella et al 2005;Dietrich et al 2006;Tunon et al 2006;Apel et al 2009). The genus Cymbopogon, family Poaceae, comprises a group of about 40 tropical aromatic grasses.…”

Actividad adulticida y composición química del aceite esencial de hojas de Lantana camara sobre Drosophila melanogaster

“…Las propiedades insecticidas de los aceites esenciales contra poblaciones adultas de mosquitos han sido reportadas por varios investigadores (Yang et al, 2005;Mansour, Messcha, & Gengaihi, 2000;Panella et al, 2005). Se sabe que Lantana camara posee actividad contra plagas que atacan granos almacenados, plagas de cultivos vegetales, mosquitos y larvas, así como también presentan actividad antifúngica y repelente (Sharma et al, 1988;Dua, Pandey, Singh, Sharma, & Subbarao, 2003).…”