Toxicity of Millettia ferruginea darasana (family: Fabaceae) against the larvae and adult ticks of Amblyomma variegatum Fabricius a three-host tick in cattle.

Abstract

The in vitro toxicity of Millettia ferruginea darasana (family: Fabaceae) was tested against the larvae adult male and female of a three-host tick, Amblyomma variegatum Fabricius (family: Ixodidae or hard tick), known as 'tropical bont tick' parasitic mainly to cattle found in Ethiopia and other equatorial Africa. The 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% concentrations of the seed oil extracted with petroleum ether were found to kill all (100% mortality) larvae after 12, 9, 6, 3 and 1.5h respectively. The results summarized in the Table1 was found to be statistically significant at the probability level of p=0.05. The 100% concentration of the oil caused 100% mortality of adult male, adult female and fully engorged female tick after 5, 7 and 12h respectively. The root and root bark showed less toxicity. The leaves did not show any toxicity. [Table: see text].