Abstract:
Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the larvicidal activity of ethanol extracts from leaves of three plants: castor bean (Ricinus communis), vinca (Vinca rosea) and lantana (Lantana camara) under 5 concentrations as 250- 3000 ppm against the 3rd instar larvae of the main mosquito vector of malaria in Sudan Anopheles arabiensis. The different larval mortality percentages were recorded after 24 hours. The larvicidal effect of each plant extract was compared with the standard larvicide Temephos (Abate�). The three tested plant extracts in their different concentrations have shown larvicidal effects on An. arabiensis larvae. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences between the higher concentration of each of the three plant ethanol extracts and the standard larvicide Temephos and that all concentrations recorded 100 % mortality of the tested larvae. The results indicated that, castor extract had the greatest larvicidal effect against An. arabiensis larvae with the lowest LC50 (282.7060 ppm) followed by vinca and lantana extracts respectively. This study suggests that, the leaf extracts of the three plant species should be considered as promising larvicides against An. arabiensis larvae.
