V. Raja¹ , John K. Ravindran² , Alex Eapen² , John S. William¹

1 Department of Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology, Loyola College, Chennai 600 034, Tamil Nadu, India
2 National Institute of Malaria Research (ICMR), Field Unit, NIE Campus, 2nd Main Road, TNHB, Ayapakkam, Chennai 600 077, Tamil Nadu, India
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Mosquito Research, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 33   doi: 10.5376/jmr.2016.06.0033
Received: 17 Jun., 2016    Accepted: 28 Jul., 2016    Published: 29 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.

Raja V., Ravindran K.J., Eapen A., and William S.J., 2016, Laboratory evaluation of crude leaf extracts of Cassia occidentalis Linneaus (Caesalpinaceae) as an oviposition determinant and ovicide against vector mosquitoes Anopheles stephensi Liston, Culex quinquefasciatus say and Aedes aegypti Linneaus (Diptera: Culicidae), Journal of Mosquito Research, 6(33): 1-11 (doi: 10.5376/jmr.2016.06.0033)

The oviposition determinant and ovicidal activity of hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol crude leaf extracts of Cassia occidentalis against Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti were studied in laboratory. The ovipositional determinant nature of the test solutions was studied at 0.1% by choice based oviposition of gravid vector mosquitoes. In hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol crude leaf extracts, the effective deterrence was 97.0%, 92.5% and 93.7% in Anopheles stephensi; 87.8%, 90.4% and 73.0% in Culex quinquefasciatus; 94.0%, 96.2% and 99.0% in Aedes aegypti respectively. The ovipositional active index was -0.9, -0.9 and -0.9; -0.8, -0.8 and -0.5; -0.8, -0.8 and -0.9 respectively indicating the deterrent property of the crude leaf extracts. The ovicidal activity was studied at 0.25%, 0.50%, 1.00% and 2.00%. Gravid vector mosquitoes were constrained in an ovitrap to lay eggs directly on to the test solutions. Egg mortality rate (per cent of eggs unhatched) was determined for assessment. At the lowest concentration, among the extracts, no absolute mortality was obtained and the hexane extract caused maximum egg mortality in both Anopheles stephensi (74.5%) and Culex quinquefasciatus (66.5%) and methanol extract in Aedes aegypti (92.5%) indicating poor ovicidal activity.

Cassia occidentalis; Crude leaf extracts; Oviposition determinant; Ovicide; Anopheles stephensi; Culex quinquefasciatus; Aedes aegypti