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Volume 11 Supplement 1

Challenges in malaria research

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Exploration of larvicidal activity of Vernonia anthelmintica (L.) wild seed crude extracts in different solvents against malaria (Anopheles stephensi) and dengue (Aedes aegypti) vectors

Background

A large part of the population in the world is affected by one or more vector-borne diseases. The most effective way to prevent such diseases is to control the vectors [1]. Plant based insecticides are one of the best alternatives for the hazardous chemicals [2]. Leaves and fruits of Vernonia anthelmintica have been reported to have larvicidal properties against malaria vector [3]. In this study the larvicidal activity of the seeds of V. anthelmintica has been investigated for the first time.

Materials and methods

In this study, larvicidal activity of crude ethanol, hexane, acetone chloroform and methanol extracts of the seeds of V. anthelmintica were tested against late Ill/early IV stages larvae of malaria (Anopheles stephensi (Liston)) and dengue (Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus)) vectors [4], [5].

Results

All tested extracts showed strong larvicidal activity against the both vectors. The most effective extract against malaria vector was ethanol followed by chloroform and methanol extracts (LC50 1.95, 3.535 and 3.974 ppm; LC90 10.49, 18.325 and 15.979 ppm). Whereas in case of dengue vector chloroform was most effective (LC50 2.76 and LC90 14.01) followed by methanol and ethanol extracts LC50 3.395 and 3.461 ppm (LC90 12.95 and 12.804 ppm) (Table 1 and 2).

Table 1 Larvicidal activity of different extracts of V.anthelmintica seeds against Late III/Early VI instar larvae of A. stephensi. No mortality was observed in the controls
Table 2 Larvicidal activity of different extracts of V.anthelmintica seeds against Late III/Early VI instar larvae of A.aegypti. No mortality was observed in the control

Conclusion

This is the first report of cent percent mortality against the vectors of malaria and dengue using minimal doses of the seed extracts of V. anthelmintica. Further work for the isolation and characterization of larvicidal compounds is in progress.

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, India for providing financial assistance in the form of research project for the present investigation. Authors are also thankful to University of Delhi as well as Centre of Medical Entomology & Vector Management, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India for providing experimental support. Alina Hellert is grateful and deeply indebted to Prof. Veena Agrawal for the opportunity to do this research work in her laboratory and to all the members of her research group for their support and assistance.

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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Hellert, A., Sharma, G., Kumar, K. et al. Exploration of larvicidal activity of Vernonia anthelmintica (L.) wild seed crude extracts in different solvents against malaria (Anopheles stephensi) and dengue (Aedes aegypti) vectors. Malar J 11 (Suppl 1), P46 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-S1-P46

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