Novel Acaricidal Activity of Vitex castus and Zingiber officinale Extracts against the Camel Tick, Hyalomma dromedarii

Abstract

Hyalomma dromedarii is one of the most important tick species in the Middle East. Acaricides of chemical origin are used for controlling ticks, but because of their harmful effect, there is a need to find out some natural alternatives such as the promising plant-based pesticides. This work is aimed to study the novel efficacy of ethanol extracts of castus, Vitex castus, and ginger, Zingiber officinale against the camel tick, Hyalomma dromedarii through adult immersion technique and determine their lethal time and concentration values and their toxicity indices. Five days post-treatment (PT), the mortality (MO)% reached 53.9 and 53.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, 15 days PT, MO% were 80.8 and 84.7%, respectively. Three days PT, the LC50 values were 12.2 and 11.8%, respectively. Such values PT for five days were 10.5 and 9.6%, respectively. The toxicity indices three days PT with V. castus and Z. officinale were 96.72 and 100.00%, respectively, and the corresponding values five days PT were 91.43 and 100.00, respectively. LT50 values PT with 25% of V. castus and Z. officinale were 2.6 and 2.5 days, respectively. According to LT50 values and PT with 25, 12, and 3%, Z. officinale killed ticks 1.04, 1.24, and 1.77 times faster than V. castus, whereas the corresponding values according to the LT90 values were 1.46, 1.58, and 1.18 times, respectively. In conclusion, the ethanolic extract of V. castus and Z. officinale extracts were highly effective candidates and could be applied as eco-friendly acaricides after revealing their ecotoxicological profile.