Short communicationThe use of commercial saponin from Quillaja saponaria bark as a natural larvicidal agent against Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens
Introduction
Quillaja saponaria is a large evergreen tree with shiny, leathery leaves and a thick bark native to China, Peru, and the arid zones of Chile (Leung, 1980). Its bark has been found to be rich in saponins, plant glycosides which are widely distributed in the plant and marine animal kingdoms. Chemically, saponins are steroids or triterpene glycosides possessing a wide variety of activities—cancer-related, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and anti-viral activities with effects on the physiology of the cardiac and blood systems, as well as molluscicidal activities (Lacaille-Dubois and Wagner, 1996). The bark of Q. saponaria is one of the major sources of industrial triterpenoid saponins. For decades extracts have been used as foaming agents in beverages, emulsifiers in foods, and wetting agent in photography (San Martin and Briones, 1999). Leung (1997) demonstrated the role of Quillaja saponins in promoting permeabilization of plasma membranes. Following previous studies, Guo and Kenne (2000) recently reported the isolation of 16 saponins from a bark extract of Q. saponaria; using NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and monosaccharide analysis, the compounds were characterized as quillaic acid substituted at C-3 with various oligosaccharides.
Aedes aegypti is considered to be a vector of dengue fever, a disease endemic to South–East Asia, Africa and the Americas (Maillard et al., 1993). Culex pipiens (northern house mosquito) is regarded as a vector of the Western Nile virus, distributed throughout Africa, the Middle East, and southern temperate and tropical Eurasia (Peiris and Amerasinghe, 1994). Recently, Turell et al. (2001) showed the potential of C. pipiens for vertical transmission of the virus in North America.
Numerous plants have been shown to produce pesticidal compounds (Ciccia et al., 2000) as a chemical defense mechanism against predators or infection. There are limited number of reports regarding the use of saponins as larvicidal agents. Zarroug et al. (1990) reported the use of the saponin-rich plant Balanites aegyptiaca as a mosquito larvicide. The aim of our present study was to characterize the larvicidal activity of commercial saponins from quillaja bark against A. aegypti and C. pipiens larvae.
Section snippets
Chemicals
Commercial saponin mixture (S7900) extracted from quillaja bark (Sigma, USA), which contains quillaic acid, a triterpene, as its main sapogenin, was used in our experiments against larvae of A. aegypti and C. pipiens. Sapogenin content was not less than 10% as quoted by the suppliers.
Larvicidal bioassay
Eggs of laboratory-grown A. aegypti and C. pipiens were hatched in tap water in a growth chamber with a 16-h photoperiod, at a temperature of 25±3 °C. Twenty larvae at the late 3rd and early 4th instar were placed
Results and discussion
A commercial saponin mixture extracted from Q. saponaria caused increasing toxicity in A. aegypti and C. pipiens as both saponin concentration and the duration of the experiment were increased. The mixture induced 100% larval mortality in both subjects after 1 and 5 days under dosages of 800 and 1000 mg/l, respectively (Table 1A and B). At the end of the experiment (11 days), larvae of A. aegypti were found to show high mortality rates under a dosage as low as 300 mg/l, while larvae of C.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Dibner Foundation (Wilton, Connecticut) and the Harry Stern Foundation for supporting this research.
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