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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Trop. Dis
Sec. Major Tropical Diseases
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fitd.2024.1443952

Behavioural response of Aedes aegypti ( Diptera: Culicidae) to essential oils of Cymbopogon nardus (L.) and Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Dehnh) and their blend in Y-maze olfactometer

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Departement des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, University Norbert Zongo, Koudougou, Burkina Faso
  • 2 Fralin Life Science Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,, Virginia, United States
  • 3 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States
  • 4 Joseph KI-ZERBO University, Ouagadougou, Kadiogo, Burkina Faso

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Aedes aegypti vectors several important arboviruses including dengue and yellow fever. This vector mosquito is controlled mainly by using synthetic insecticides and repellents. Overusing these insecticides causes mosquito resistance, harms the environment, and affects human health. This report reevaluates the repellent activities of Cymbopogon nardus, Eucalyptus camaldulensis essential oils (EOs), and their mixtures against laboratory-raised reared adult Aedes Ae. aegypti. Methods: The chemical composition of Cymbopogon C. nardus, Eucalyptus E. camaldulensis EOs, and their 1:1 combination was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). We evaluated the repellent activities of these oils against Ae. aegypti using a Y-maze olfactometer. The preference index (PI) was evaluated and compared with the binary data obtained from the olfactometer assay with samples that did not contain EOs (control) using an Exact Binomial test (α= 0.05) Results: Several monoterpenes and sesquiterpene compounds were found in EOs and their mixture. The EOs of E. camaldulensis and the mixture of the two oils showed a repellent activity of 50%, whereas C. nardus was less active and attracted mosquitoes at 1 ppm. Conclusion: We show that EOs from C. nardus and E. camaldulensis contain compounds that repel Ae. aegypti. Future studies will identify specific compounds with the highest repellent activities and use them to formulate in the future a potent repellent against Ae. aegypti for human protection.

    Keywords: Essential oil, repellent, Aedes aegypti, mixture, GC-MS

    Received: 04 Jun 2024; Accepted: 10 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 WANGRAWA, Chandrasegaran, Upshur, Borovsky, Sharakhov, VINAUGER, Badolo, Sanon and Lahondère. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dimitri W. WANGRAWA, Departement des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, University Norbert Zongo, Koudougou, Burkina Faso

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.