Abstract

VARGAS V, Mario. An update on published literature (period 1992-2010) and botanical categories on plant essential oils with effects on mosquitoes (Diptera:Culicidae). Bol Mal Salud Amb [online]. 2012, vol.52, n.2, pp.143-194. ISSN 1690-4648.

Diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and dengue which are responsible for millions of cases of sickness and death among people living in developing countries of the tropical regions continue to be of great concern to health authorities. Efforts to control such mosquito transmitted diseases have primarily been concentrated on the use of synthetic insecticides. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the appearance of physiological mosquito resistance, toxicity problems to human patients, environmental contamination, ecological imbalance and economic burden. Such problems have created the need to look for alternative, environmentaly friendly control mechanisms based on those found in nature. These include the essential oils from plants, some of which have been used for years by people for medicinal purposes without knowing their active components. For the past 40 years, a great impulse has taken place in the research on natural essential oils from plants. Those oils exhibiting properties that affect mosquitoes such as ovicides, larvicides, insecticides, repellents, attractants and regulators of development have been of special interest to researchers and pest management personnel. An important contribution in summarizing the research in this field prior to 1991 was a report done by K. Sukumar, M. J. Perich & L. R. Boobar (1991). These authors emphasized that the phytochemical compounds derived from the plants tested, may be used as an alternative to synthetic compounds. The above mentioned authors sumarized 130 references for the period before 1991 and mentioned 345 species of plants which exhibited bioactive action against different mosquito species, the type of bioactivity and the corresponding references for each study. Herein, we present 358 references of papers concerning this topic published between 1991 and 2010. Following the format of Sukumar, Perich and Boobar, we have included the botanical name of the plant (family, genus, species), its bioactivity against mosquitos (OV=ovicide, LA=larvicide, AD=adulticide, RE=repellent, IN= insecticide, DR=development retardant, AT=attractant), and the corresponding number reference from which the record was cited.

Keywords : Botanical essential oils-control of mosquitoes; Diptera: Culicidae.

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