Acaricidal activity of extracts from Ligularia virgaurea against the Sarcoptes scabiei mite in vitro

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the acaricidal activity of <i>Ligularia virgaurea</i>. An extract was prepared by refluxing with ethanol and steam distillation, and its toxic effect was tested <i>in vitro</i> against <i>Sarcoptes scabiei</i>. The data from the toxicity tests were analyzed using a complementary log-log (CLL) model. The ethanol extract exhibited strong acaricidal activity against these mites; at a concentration of 2 g/ml it killed all <i>S. scabiei</i> within 2 h and at 1 g/ml it killed all <i>S. scabiei</i> within 6 h. Similarly, 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.25 g/ml concentrations of the extract had strong toxicity against <i>S. scabiei</i>, with median lethal time (LT₅₀) values of 0.716, 1.741, 2.968 and 4.838 h, respectively. The median lethal concentration (LC₅₀) values were 1.388, 0.624, 0.310 and 0.213 g/ml for <i>Scabies</i> mite in 1, 2, 4 and 6 h, respectively. The results indicate that the <i>L. virgaurea</i> extract has strong acaricidal activity and may be exploited as a novel treatment for the effective control of acariasis in animals.