Review on biologically active natural insecticides from Malaysian tropical plants against Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus

Abstract

Dengue fever is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, caused by the dengue viruses (DENV 1–4) and it was transmitted in Malaysia by two main Aedes mosquito species: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. The overuse of synthetic chemical insecticides in managing these vectors leads to an increase in insecticide resistance, which has occurred in most arthropod species, including Aedes mosquitoes. Bio-insecticides have been suggested as a new potential alternative method which can replace synthetic chemical insecticides to overcome the vector issues. Analytical data were used to compare with Malaysian plants that have larvicidal ability; and those plants were Areca catechu, Azolla pinnata, Lantana camara, Mukia maderaspatana, and Leucas aspera. The most prevalent chemical components found in all five plants were fatty acids (oleic acid, palmitic acid, tetradecanoic acid), fatty acid methyl esters (hexadecanoic acid methyl ester, 9-octadecenoic acid (Z)-methyl ester), and flavonoids (catechin). These chemical compounds have been patented for pesticide formulations due to their biodegradable qualities and capacity to increase pesticide efficiency. Furthermore, the key advantages of these chemical compounds to combat vector difficulties are their enzyme inhibitory characteristics, biochemical alterations, and structural deformation of mosquito larvae. According to the findings of this study, these five plants have the potential to be used as bio-insecticides.

Keywords

• Biological activity
• Chemical constituents
• Areca catechu L
• Aedes
• Fatty acids
• Flavonoids