The larvicidal activities of three Jatropha species against Aedes aegypti mosquito

Abstract

Jatropha curcas L., Jatropha gossipifolia L. and Jatropha multifida L. belong to the family Euphorbiaceae. There had been contradictory reports of the larvicidal potential of the Jatrophas and there was no report of the isolation of the larvicidal compound(s). The present study therefore reports the larvicidal activities of the petroleum ether, ethylacetate and methanol extracts of the leaves and stem barks of the three plants and the column chromatographic fractions of the petroleum ether extract of J. gossipifolia stem bark against the larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector of dengue and yellow fevers. The methanol extract of J. curcas (LC₅₀, LC₉₀ 1.70 ± 0.03, 3.23 ± 0.07 mg/mL), the petroleum ether extracts of J. multifida (LC₅₀, LC₉₀ 1.96 ± 0.01, 3.50 ± 0.02 mg/mL) and J. gossipifolia (LC₅₀, LC₉₀ 1.58 ± 0.02, 3.02 ± 0.03 mg/mL) stem barks demonstrated high activities against the fourth instar larvae of A. aegypti at 48 hours. Efforts are on-going to isolate the active compounds from the two active column fractions of J. gossipifolia stem bark.

Keywords: Jatropha species, Aedes aegypti, purification, Yellow fever, Dengue fever