Mosquito larvicidal activity of Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) unripe fruit peel methanolic extract against Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles stephensi

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases contribute significantly to disease burden, death, poverty, and social debility all over the world. Among these diseases, dengue, malaria and filariasis are most important diseases spread by mosquitoes. In the present work, the methanolic extract of the unripe fruit peel of Persea americana was tested for the larvicidal activity against the third instar larvae of the three mosquito vectors- Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles stephensi for 24 h. The methanol extract of peels showed good larvicidal activity against Anopheles stephensi with LC50 and LC90 values of 6.65 and 71.62 ppm, Aedes aegypti with 7.12 and 86.59 ppm followed by Culex quinquefasciatus with 10.78 and 69.39 ppm respectively. The present study revealed that the methanolic extract of unripe fruit peel of Persea americana showed mosquito larvicidal activity in the order Anopheles stephensi followed by Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus in the third instar larval stage.