Abstract
Vector-borne diseases have appeared or re-emerged in many Southern Europe countries making the transmission of infectious diseases by mosquitoes (vectors) one of the greatest worldwide health threats. Larvicides have been used extensively for the control of Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse, 1895) (Diptera: Culicidae) and Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758 (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes in urban and semi-urban environments, causing the increasing resistance of mosquitoes to commercial insecticides. In this study, 27 curcuminoids and monocarbonyl curcumin derivatives were synthesised and evaluated as potential larvicidal agents against Cx. pipiens and Ae. albopictus. Most of the compounds were more effective against larvae of both mosquito species. Four of the tested compounds, curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, curcumin-BF2 complex and a monocarbonyl tetramethoxy curcumin derivative exhibited high activity against both species. In Cx. pipiens the recorded LC50 values were 6.0, 9.4, 5.0 and 32.5 ppm, respectively, whereas in Ae. albopictus they exhibited LC50 values of 9.2, 36.0, 5.5 and 23.6 ppm, respectively. No conclusive structure activity relationship was evident from the results and the variety of descriptors values generated in silico provided some insight to this end.
Highlights
Diseases caused from vector bites such as mosquitos, ticks and fleas have more than tripled in the United States from 2004–2016 [1]
Regarding diseases caused by Aedes-borne viruses, more than one million Zika virus (ZIKV) infections and thousands of infants with birth defects were reported from 2015–2016 and Dengue fever (DENV) which infects over one hundred million people in over 100 countries every year [4,5]
The general synthetic routes to symmetric dicarbonyl analogues of curcumin 1a–i, along with the rigid cyclized pyrazole 2 and BF2 analogues 3f–i are depicted in Scheme 1
Summary
Diseases caused from vector bites such as mosquitos, ticks and fleas have more than tripled in the United States from 2004–2016 [1]. As an alternative strategy the use of plant-derived products has been suggested as an additional group of potential larvicidal agents due to their rapid biodegradability, eco-friendliness and superior safety profile [16] To this end, the essential oils from the Dai medicinal plant Zingiber cassumunar against. The work by Zhu et al presented the evaluation of the larvicidal activity of four plant essential oils—cinnamon oil, lemon eucalyptus oil, sandalwood oil and turmeric oil—against 4th instars of Ae. albopictus, Ae. aegypti and Cx. pipiens. Aiming to improve the larvicidal activity against Cx. pipiens as well as evaluate their potential activity against an invasive mosquito species (Ae. albopictus), we would like to report the synthesis of a small library of curcumin derivatives.
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