Mousumi Kundu , Anjali Rawani , Goutam Chandra

Mosquito and microbiology Research Units, Department of Zoology, The University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Mosquito Research, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 11   doi: 10.5376/jmr.2013.03.0011
Received: 11 Apr., 2013    Accepted: 18 Apr., 2013    Published: 10 Jul., 2013

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.

Kundu et al., 2013, Evaluation of Mosquito Larvicidal Activities of Seed Coat Extract of Cassia sophera L., Journal of Mosquito Research, Vol.3, No.11 76-81 (doi: 10.5376/jmr.2013.03.0011)

In the present study an attempt was made to analyze the larvicidal activity of crude and ethyl acetate extracts of matured seed coat of Cassia sophera against Culex quinquefaciatus. Crude and ethyl acetate extracts of matured seed coat of Cassia sophera was tested against Culex quinquefaciatus. The lethal concentration was determined and the appropriate lethal concentrations at 24 h for ethyl acetate extract was also studied on non target organisms such as Daphnia sp., Diplonychus annulatum (predatory water-bug) and Chironomus circumdatus larvae (insect). Phytochemical analysis of the crude extract of matured seed coat of Cassia sophera was also done. All the graded concentration (0.6%, 0.7%, 0.8%, 0.9%, 1%) showed significant (p<0.05) larval mortality and result of regression equation revealed that mortality rates were positively correlated with concentrations of extracts. LC₅₀ and LC₉₀ values were calculated at different time intervals, and the lowest values were obtained at 72 h for first instar larvae. In ethyl acetate solvent extract the mortality rate was higher at 520 ppm against Culex quinquefaciatus than the other doses. There was no mortality of non-target organism within 72 h of post exposure to LC₅₀ concentration at 24 h of both crude and solvent extracts under the laboratory condition. The result of preliminary qualitative phytochemical analysis of the seed coat revealed the presence of some secondary metabolite such as saponin, alkaloid and cardiac glycosides. The results support that the tested plant extract can be used for control of larval form of Culex quinquefaciatus.

Cassia sophera; Culex quinquefasciatus; Mosquito larvae; Biocontrol