Chemical composition and larvicidal activity of Citrus limonia Osbeck bark essential oil

Abstract

Aedes aegypti mosquito arouses the interest of public authorities, as it is a vector for four diseases (dengue, zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever) and one of the ways to combat it is through insecticides. In this study, the main constituent, the predominant class of essential oil extracted from the husks of Citrus limonia Osbeck was identified and evaluated to know if it has biological activity against larvae in the third stage of Ae.aegypti. gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (CG-MS); larvicidal activity as described by the World Health Organization (WHO) was evaluated and the lethal concentration (LC50) from the Probit model was calculated. The results show that the oil consists mainly of limonene, beta-Pinene, meta-Cymene, beta.-Phellandrene and alpha-Pinene, in which the predominant class was monoterpenes and the lethal concentration, CL50, was 67.18 µg.mL-1. Therefore, the oil has potential larvicidal activity. Key words: Volatile compounds, monoterpenes, aedes aegypti, limonene, natural insecticide.