Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate the larvicidal effect of aqueous leaf extract from Jatropha mollissima on the larvae of Aedes aegypti and analyze its cytotoxic and genotoxic activity in the Allium cepa test. Larvae of the mosquito were exposed to the negative and positive controls (distilled water and diflubenzuron, 0.003 mg mL-1, respectively) and to leaf extract concentrations of 0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.1 mg mL-1. The mortality rate was evaluated every 24 hours over five days. For the cytotoxic and genotoxic analyses, roots of A. cepa were exposed to the negative (distilled water) and positive control (trifluralin, 0.84 ppm) and to different leaf extract concentrations (0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 mg mL-1) for 24 hours. The statistical analyses were performed by Kruskal-Wallis test (p < 0.05). The leaf extract presented promising larvicidal activity at the concentrations of 0.08 and 0.1 mg mL-1, and none of the concentrations evaluated in A. cepa exhibited cytotoxic or genotoxic effect. Since the larvicidal action of J. mollissima and the absence of cellular toxicity have been demonstrated, further studies are recommended to determine the mechanism of action of the extract as a possible natural larvicide.
Highlights
For thousands of years, several plants have been employed for medicinal purposes, from the simplest types of treatment up to the industrial manufacturing of drugs (Saraiva et al, 2015)
The mean lengths of A. cepa radicles at the different concentrations of aqueous leaf extract (ALE) (0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 mg mL-1) did not present significant statistical differences when compared to the negative control (NC) (Table 1)
No significant statistical difference was observed between the mitotic index (MI) of the treatments and of the NC (Table 1)
Summary
Several plants have been employed for medicinal purposes, from the simplest types of treatment up to the industrial manufacturing of drugs (Saraiva et al, 2015). The interest as well as the utilization of natural products as potential larvicides have been increasing, as these products are less harmful to non-target organisms (Ali, Ravikumar, & Beula, 2013), besides regulating the growth of insects (Bezerra-Silva et al, 2015). They stand out as alternatives to conventional chemical pesticides, for instance organochlorides and organophosphates, which, upon indiscriminate use, lead to the selection of more resistant vectors, such as Aedes aegypti L. 40, e34501, 2018 anthropophilic mosquito with diurnal hematophagous activity, depending on clear water reservoirs for oviposition. Apart from being the vector of dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya, it has recently been described as the main transmitter of the zika virus (ZIKV) in Brazil (Mustafa, Rasotgi, Jain, & Gupta, 2015)
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