Larvicidal activity, aquatic and in vivo toxicity of anacardic acid loaded-zein nanoparticles

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the larvicidal activity, the aquatic and subacute toxicity of anacardic acid in solution and encapsulated in zein nanoparticles. For the larvicidal potential, different anacardic acid concentrations were tested against young A. aegypti larvae, determining the mortality rates at 24, 48 h and the residual effect between 1 and 4 weeks. For the acute ecotoxicology test, Daphnia magna was selected as the untargeted environmental organism. To evaluate the subacute toxicity, blank and anacardic acid loaded-zein nanoparticles were administered orally to Swiss mice in the dose of 2.25 μg/kg for 7 days. Anacardic acid loaded-zein nanoparticles showed remarkable larvicidal activity up to 48 h at very low concentrations. Moreover, under the larvicide concentrations mortality was limited in aquatic toxicity assay, while no signs of toxicity were found in the mice treated with blank or anacardic acid nanoparticles. Accordingly, the anacardic acid nanoformulations were found to be very potent and efficient on eliminating A. aegypt larvae, and also unhazardous to non-target species, representing a new larvicide candidate against arboviruses diseases’ vectors.