acaricidal and cytotoxic activities of artemisia absinthium against haemaphysalis spp. ticks and determination of its toxicity by mtt assay

The haemaphysalis species of ticks are responsible for transmission of pathogens in vertebrate animals and humans (1). recently, the use of natural compounds has been proposed as a useful and inexpensive approach to fight against ticks (2). the aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro arcaricidal activity of hydroalcoholic extract of artemisia absinthium against the haemaphysalis spp. and determine its toxicity using mtt assay. the acaricidal activity of a. absinthium in concentrations of 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mg/ml was investigated after 10, 30 and 60 min. in this experiment, the spraying and contact methods were used. the main compounds of a. absinthium were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc–ms). then, the toxicity of each concentration was evaluated through mtt assay. mortality percentages and lc50 values were also calculated. data were analyzed by graphpad prism 5 software. the results of this study showed that the concentration of 250 mg/ml of a. absinthium had the highest acaricidal effect (90.00%) in the exposure time of 60 min, and spraying method was more effective than contact method. the results of the mtt test showed that toxicity increases with increasing concentration, and low concentrations of a. absinthium have very little toxicity. the gc-ms showed that n-docosane (9.72%) is the main ingredient of a. absinthium. it is concluded that the hydroalcoholic extract of a. absinthium contains potent acaricidal compounds and it may be used as a natural acaricide against haemaphysalis spp.