Larvicidal and Adult Emergence Inhibition Effect of Crude Aqueous Leaf Extract of Jatropha curcas Against Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidea)

Abstract

This study aimed at evaluating the larvicidal and adult emergence inhibitory effects of crude aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha curcas against laboratory reared late third instar larvae of Anopheles arabiensis. For this purpose, standard larvicidal and recovery bioassays were used. At 500–1000 ppm, larvicidal activity of aqueous leaf extract of J. curcas was comparable to the larvicidal activity of 0.5 ppm Temephos (positive control). The LC50 and LC90 values of crude aqueous leaf extract of J.curcas were found to be 359 and 921. 61 ppm, respectively. More than 70% adult emergence inhibition (IE) was occurred in larvae recovered from treatments with test concentrations ranging from 125–1000 ppm. Generally, crude aqueous leaf extract of J.curcas showed dose dependent larvicidal and adult emergence inhibitory activities against the tested larvae. Future studies are recommended to identify active chromatographic fractions from the crude aqueous leaf extract of J. curcas because its larvicidal and adult emergence inhibitory activities may not be due to the synergistic effect of its bioactive fractions.