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Total phenolic and flavonoid contents of oakmoss lichen Evernia prunastri extracts and their insecticidal activities against larvae of two vector mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens

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Abstract

Aedes aegypti L. and Culex pipiens L. are among the world’s most common and medically important mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Each year, millions of people are infected with pathogens transmitted by these mosquitoes and thousands of people die from mosquito-borne diseases. Although chemical insecticides are widely used for vector control, most of them are highly toxic to the environment and human health. The harmful effects of chemical pesticides have led scientists to search for the less toxic, natural, and eco-friendly products. In this regard, lichens, a symbiotic association, are one of the organisms studied in the search for new insecticidal active substances. In this research, the toxicity of acetone, ethanol and methanol extracts from oakmoss lichen, Evernia prunastri (L.) Ach., a widely available epiphytic macro-lichen species, was investigated in of Ae. aegypti and Cx. pipiens. The extracts showed varying levels of toxic effect on the two mosquito species depending on the concentration and it is clear that methanol and ethanol extracts of E. prunastri were more toxic than the acetone extract according to the LC50 values. The LC50 values of methanol, ethanol and acetone extracts for Cx. pipiens older instar (third–fourth) larvae at 48 h were 104.3, 153.9 and 490.0 ppm, for young instars (first–second), they were 203.4, 326.6 and 606.9 ppm, respectively. The LC50 values of methanol, ethanol and acetone extracts for 48 h on Ae. aegypti young instar larvae were 390.9, 440.0 and 2934.8 ppm, and 537.1, 515.3 and 1837.1 ppm for older instar larvae, respectively. The highest contents of total flavonoids and phenolic compounds were determined in acetone extract of E. prunastri. The phenolic compounds in extracts range from 7.48 to 10.28 mg gallic acid/g and the flavonoid content of extracts range from 37.68 to 91.76 mg catechin/g. This is the first study on the toxic effect of E. prunastri extracts on mosquitoes and indicates that lichen extracts can be a source for developing environmentally friendly larvicides.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Protection Technology, Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

    Ozge Tufan-Cetin

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

    Aysegul Cengiz, Zeynep Nur Gultekin, Sevval Kahraman, Burak Polat, Samed Koc & Huseyin Cetin

  3. Laboratory Animals Application and Research Centre, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

    Samed Koc

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  1. Ozge Tufan-Cetin
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Contributions

Conceptualization, OTC and HC; Data curation, OTC and HC; Formal analysis, OTC and HC; Funding acquisition, OTC and HC; Investigation, OTC, AC, ZNG, SK, BP, SK and HC; Methodology, OTC and HC; Project administration, OTC, SK, and HC; Resources, OTC and HC; Software, OTC; Supervision, OTC and HC; Validation, OTC, SK, and HC; Visualization, OTC and HC; Writing – original draft, OTC, SK, and HC; Writing – review & editing, OTC, SK, and HC. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Huseyin Cetin.

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Tufan-Cetin, O., Cengiz, A., Gultekin, Z.N. et al. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents of oakmoss lichen Evernia prunastri extracts and their insecticidal activities against larvae of two vector mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens. Int J Trop Insect Sci 43, 1355–1363 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-023-01044-0

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