Subrata Mallick^{1, 2} , Devaleena Mukherjee¹ , Anushree Singha  Ray¹ , Goutam Chandra¹

1 Department of Zoology, Mosquito, Microbiology and Nanotechnology Research Units, Parasitology Laboratory, The University of Burdwan, West Bengal, 713104, India
2 Department of Zoology, Maharajadhiraj Uday Chand Women’s College, Burdwan, West Bengal, India
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Mosquito Research, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 20   doi: 10.5376/jmr.2016.06.0020
Received: 11 May, 2016    Accepted: 28 Jul., 2016    Published: 07 Nov., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Mallick S., Mukherjee D., Singha Ray A., and Chandra G., 2016, Larvicidal efficacy of fruit peel extracts of Citrus maxima against Culex quinquefasciatus, 6(20): 1-8 (doi: 10.5376/jmr.2016.06.0020)

Crude, and three different solvents, viz., n- hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol fruit peel extracts of Citrus maxima Merr. (C. maxima) were applied at dose dependent manner for larvicidal bioassay against Culex quinquefasciatus Say, 1823 (Cx. quinquefasciatus) mosquito. All instars larvae were used for larvicidal bioassay of crude fruit peel extract and only 3^rd instar larvae were used for larvicidal bioassay of different solvent extracts.  Log-probit analyses along with Regression equations and R² values were determined for larvicidal activity of both crude and different solvent extracts. An ANOVA analysis was carried out to justify the statistical significance. Qualitative phytochemical analyses were done. n-Hexane fruit peel extract was also applied on non target organisms. Crude fruit peel extract of C. maxima showed strong lethal activity against all instars larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus. 1^st instar larvae were most susceptible to crude fruit peel extract. 1^st  instar larvae showed 100% mortality only at 0.2% concentration of crude fruit peel extract after 72 h of exposure. 100% mortality of 3^rd instar larvae were observed at 400 ppm concentration of n-hexane fruit peel extract after 24 h of exposure whereas, ethyl acetate and methanol fruit peel extracts showed 100% mortality at 800 ppm concentration  after 72 and 24 h of exposure respectively. LC₅₀ values of n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol fruit peel extracts were 204.60, 640.95, and 336.36 ppm, respectively against 3^rd instar larvae after 24 h of exposure.  No mortality was observed on control treatments. Fruit peel extract contained different phytochemical constituents. Non-target organisms did not show any abnormal activity and mortality.  

Citrus maxima; Culex quinquefasciatus; Larvicidal activity; Non-target organisms; Phytochemicals