Repellency of medicinal plant extracts against dengue vector mosquitoes,Aedes albopictus and Ae. aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)

This study was carried out to evaluate the repellency potential of the essential oils extracted from the branches and leaves of eucalyptus (eucalyptus globules),neem (azadirachta indica),peppermint (mentha piperita),niazbow (ocimum basilicum) and rhizome of ginger (zingiber officinale) against the adult females of aedes albopictus and aedes aegypti. the essential oils were extracted by using a soxhlet apparatus with petroleum ether as a solvent. the repellency of essential oils was determined by a human - bait technique. the bites were recorded for 3 min after each 15 min from 1100 h to 1400 h. a control treatment was also run using canola oil. all other oils were mixed separately with canola oil to make 10% solution. the anova and duncan analysis revealed a highly significant difference in repellency duration and biting protection among the repellents tested under this experiment. all essential oils tested provided protection for > 33 min than the control. neem oil gave the longest protection viz.,246±15.78 and 256±14.87 min,against ae. aegypti and ae. albopictus,respectively,while ginger oil gave the shortest protection time against both aedes species. all the studied factors (type of oil as a repellent,repellency duration,and biting protection) and their interactions were found to be highly significant statistically. the oils extracted from m. piperita,a. indica,z. officinale and o. basilicum have strong repellent action against the adults of ae. aegypti and ae. albopictus and could be safely used to avoid these mosquitoes. copyright 2015 zoological society of pakistan.