Abstract
Five different weed plants viz. Convulvulus arvensis, Chenopodium murale, Tribulus terrestris, Trianthema portulacastrum, and Achyranthes aspera were investigated for their entomocidal and genotoxic effects against Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes. High mortality was observed at 72 hours in a dose dependent manner. Among all the tested plants, A. aspera was found highly significant which showed 100% mortality at 250 ppm after 72 hours with LC50 of 87.46, 39.08 and 9.22 ppm at 24, 48, respectively. In combination with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti); A. aspera also caused 100% mortality at 250 ppm concentration after 72 hours (LC50 8.29 ppm). Phytochemical analysis of all the tested weed plants showed the presence of flavonoids, saponins, tannins, steroids, cardiac glycosides, alkaloids, anthrequinones and terpenoids. Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA-Polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) and comet assay were performed to assess the genotoxic effect of A. aspera but no change in DNA profile was observed. Furthermore, FTIR showed the presence of phenolic compounds in A. aspera extract. It is suggested that certain phenolic compounds such as flavonoids modulate the enzymatic activity and, hence, cause the death of larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus. Altogether, current study would serve as an initial step towards replacement of synthetic insecticides to plant-microbe based biopesticide against Culex mosquitoes in future.
Highlights
Mosquitoes are reported to cause nuisance to humans and transmit several viral and protozoan diseases of public health concern worldwide
As compare to synthetic pesticide (Permethrin) only T. terrestris and C. murale showed the low mortality among all weed plants extracts
Enzyme inhibition activity of AChE, AcP, AkP, α-Carboxyl and β-Carboxyl was found in tested weed plant extracts
Summary
Mosquitoes are reported to cause nuisance to humans and transmit several viral and protozoan diseases of public health concern worldwide. These are female mosquitoes which make a bite during their search for blood meal before oviposition which increases their tendency to transmit several diseases including malaria, filariasis, dengue fever, japanese encephalitis, chikungunya, zika virus and yellow fever. To avoid proliferation of mosquito borne diseases; mosquito control is necessary which is essentially performed through using chemical insecticides Many synthetic agents such as organochlorine and organophosphate compounds have been developed and employed with a considerable success despite of therein including toxicity to non-targeted organisms and fostered sometimes severe environmental and human health concerns[9]. The current study was designed to evaluate the entomocidal impact of different weed plant extracts individually and in combination with microbial strains along with the genotoxic effect of weed plant extracts against Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes
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