Chemical Composition and Control Potential of Melia azedarach Extracts Against Culex pipiens
,
Abstract
Background: Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) poses a persistent global health challenge. The overuse of synthetic insecticides has led to resistance and environmental damage, underscoring the need for sustainable alternatives. Melia azedarach (Meliaceae) represents a promising source of bioactive compounds. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the potential of alkaloid extracts from M. azedarach against all life stages of Cx. pipiens and to characterize their phytochemical composition.
Methods: Crude alkaloid extracts were prepared from both plant parts. Ovicidal, larvicidal, pupicidal and adult repellent effects, were assessed through laboratory bioassays. The chemical profile of the extracts was determined using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).
Results: Bioassays demonstrated significant ovicidal activity, with 100% egg mortality at 1% (w/v) concentration. Larvicidal activity was also notable at 1% (w/v). The fruit extract caused 100% mortality across the first three larval instars, while the leaf extract caused 100% mortality in the first two instars and 96.6% in the third. In the fourth instar, larvae showed 93.33 and 91.67% mortality with the fruit and leaf extracts, respectively. The extracts exhibited significant repellent effects, with rates of 63.00% and 60.00% at 1% (w/v) and consistently negative equilibrium ratios. GC-MS analysis showed the fruit extract was rich in insecticidal fatty acid esters, while the leaf extract contained repellent terpenoids like Piperitenone Oxide. Linoleic acid was a major shared compound, potentially underpinning the broad-stage efficacy.
Conclusion: These findings support the use of M. azedarach extracts as a promising, locally accessible and environmentally responsible strategy for integrated Cx. pipiens mosquito management.
1. Andriamifidy RF, Tjaden NB, Beier-kuhnlein
C, Thomas SM (2019) Do we know how mosquito disease vectors will respond to climate change?. Emerg Top Life Sci. 3(2): 115–132.
2. Brugman VA, Hernández-Triana LM, Med¬lock JM, Fooks AR, Carpenter S, John¬son N (2018) The role of Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) in virus trans¬mission in Europe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 15(2): 389.
3. Haba Y, McBride L (2022) Origin and sta-tus of Culex pipiens mosquito eco¬types. Curr Biol. 32(5): R237–R246.
4. Negi C, Verma P (2018). Review on Cu¬lex quinquefasciatus: Southern House Mos-quito. Int J Life Sci Res. 4(1): 1563–1566.
5. Sarwar M (2016) Mosquito-borne viral in-fections and diseases among persons and interfering with the vector activities. Int J Vaccines Vaccination. 3(2): 00063.
6. Mohammed BR, Yayo AM, Ajanusi OJ, Lawal IA (2021) Relative abundance and molecular identification of Culex pipiens complex (Diptera: Culicidae), in Kura Lo¬cal Government Area, North-western Ni¬geria. Parasite Epidem Cont. 14: e00213.
7. Koosha M, Oshaghi MA, Sedaghat MM, Vatandoost H, Azari-Hamidian S, Abai MR, Hanafi-Bojd AA, Mohtarami F (2017) Sequence analysis of mtDNA COI barcode region revealed three hap-lo¬types within Culex pipiens assem¬blage. Exp Parasitol. 181: 102–110.
8. Aanouz I, El Khatabi K, Belhassana A, Bouachrine M, Lakhlifi T, El Idrissi M (2020) Session 2/Oral 3D Quantitative structure activity and molecular docking of 2-hydroxyisoquinoline-1, 3-dione an-alogues as inhibitors of hiv reverse tran-scriptase associated ribonuclease H. Con¬grès International de l’Industrie En-vi¬ronnement et la Santé, 2020, October 5-8, Mohammedia, Morocco, p. 1.
9. Hemingway J, Hawkes NJ, McCarrol L, Ramnson H (2004) The molecular basis insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. In-sect Biochem and Mol Biol. 34: 653–665.
10. Davies TGE, Field LM, Usherwood PNR, Williamson MS (2007) DDT, pyre¬thrins, pyrethroids and insect sodium channels. J Int Union Biochem Mol Biol Life. 59 (3): 151–162.
11. Aktar MW, Sengupta D, Chowdhury A (2009) Impact of pesticides use in agri-culture: their benefits and hazards. In-terdiscip Toxicol. 2(1): 1–12.
12. Mnif W, Hassine AIH, Bouaziz A, Bartegi A, Thomas O, Roig B (2011) Effect of endocrine disruptor pesticides: a re¬view. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 8(6): 2265–2303.
13. Ghosh A, Chowdhury N, Chandra G (2012) Plant extracts as potential mos-quito lar¬vicides. Indian J Med Res. 135(5): 581–598.
14. Pavela R (2016) History, presence and per¬spective of using plant extracts as ef-fective mosquito larvicides: a review. Plant Protect Sci. 52(4): 229–241.
15. Chatterjee S, Sarkar B, Bag S, Biswal D, Mandal A, Bandyopadhyay R, Sarkar D, Chatterjee A, Saha NC (2024) Mitigat¬ing the public health issues caused by the filarial vector, Culex quinquefascia¬tus (Diptera: Culicidae) through phyto¬control and larval source marker man¬agement. Appl Biochem Biotech¬nol. 196(8): 5013–5044.
16. Ragavendran K, Selvakumaran J, Mu-thuKana¬gavel M, Ignacimuthu S, Alhar-bi NS, Thiruvengadam M, Mutheeswa-ran S, Ganesan P (2024) Effect of Mos-quitocidal, histopathological alteration and non-target effects of Sigesbeckia orien¬talis L. on Anopheles stephensi Liston, Culex quinquefasciatus Say and Aedes aegypti L. Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Re¬ports. 49: 100997.
17. Nathan SS, Savitha G, George DK, Nar-madha A, Suganya L, Chung PG (2006) Efficacy of Melia azedarach L. extract on the malarial vector Anopheles ste-phen¬si Liston (Diptera: Culicidae). Bio-resour Technol. 97(11): 1316–1323.
18. Harborne JB (1987) Metode Fitokimia: Penun¬tun Cara Modern Menganalisis Tum¬buhan (Phytochemical Method: a Modern Guide to Analyze Plants). 2nd edition. ITB publisher, West Java, Indo-nesia.
19. Sarikaya BB, Somer NU, Kaya GI, Onur MA, Bastida J, Berkov S (2013) GC-MS investigation and acetylcholinesterase in-hibitory activity of Galanthus rizehen¬sis. Z Naturforsch C J Biosci. 68(3–4): 118–124.
20. Govindarajan M, Rajeswary M, Arivoli S, Tennyson S, Benelli G (2016) Larvicid¬al and repellent potential of Zingiber nimmonii (J. Graham) Dalzell (Zingi¬ber-aceae) essential oil: an eco-friendly tool against malaria, dengue and lym¬phatic filariasis mosquito vectors?. J Parasitol Res. 115: 1807–1816.
21. Abbott WS (1925) The Value of the Dry Substitutes for Liquid Lime. J Econ En-tomol. 18: 265–267.
22. Abdulla NA, and Aljanabi MMK (2020) Toxicity of Aqueous and Organic Sol-vent Extracts of Melia azedarach (L) Leaves in the Larvae and Pupae of Cu-lex pipiens. Biopestic Int. 16(1): 13–19.
23. Hussein HS, Salem MZM, Soliman AM (2017) Repellent, attractive, and insecti-cidal effects of essential oils from Schi-nus terebinthifolius fruits and Corymbia citriodora leaves on two whitefly spe-cies, Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes ricini. Sci Hortic. 216: 111–119.
24. Veronesi R, Gentile G, Carrieri M, Mac-cagnani B, Stermieri L, Bellini R (2012) Seasonal pattern of daily activity of Ae-des caspius, Aedes detritus, Culex mod-estus and Culex pipiens in the Po Delta of northern Italy and significance for vec¬tor borne disease risk assessment. J Vec¬tor Ecol. 37(1): 49–61.
25. Mohammed NAG, Hassan AAH, Mo-hammed MO (2021) The effect of pyr-rolidinium bromide salt in the life of the southern cowpea beetle Callosobruchus Maculatus (Fab) (Coleoptera: Chrysome-lidae). IOP Conference Series: J Earth Environ Sci. 910 (1): 012140.
26. Souza APD, Vendramim JD (2000) Ati-vidade ovicida de extratos aquosos de meliáceas sobre a mosca branca Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) biótipo B em to-mateiro. Sci Agric. 57: 403–406.
27. Veni T, Pushpanathan T, Mohanraj J (2017) Larvicidal and ovicidal activity of Ter¬minalia chebula Retz. (Family: Combre¬taceae) medicinal plant extracts against Anopheles stephensi, Aedes ae-gypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. J Parasit Dis. 41(3): 693–702.
28. Ranchitha B, Umavathi S, Thangam Y, Revathi S (2016) Chemical Constituents and Larvicidal Efficacy of Melia azeda-rach L Leaf Extract against Dengue Vec¬tor Aedes aegypti L (Diptera : Cu-licidae ). Int J Innov Res Sci Eng Tech-nol. 5(3): 3060–3070.
29. Rudayni HA, Basher NS, AL-keridis LA, Ibrahim NA, Abdelmageed E (2021) The efficiency of ethanolic extract of Oci¬mum basilicum leaves and flowers agiainst mos¬quito larvae. Entomol Appl Sci Lett. 8 (3-2021): 46–53.
30. Baz MM, Selim AM, Radwan IT, Alkhai-bari AM, Gattan HS, Alruhaili MH, Alasmari SM, Gad ME (2024) Evaluat-ing larvicidal, ovicidal and growth in-hibiting activity of five medicinal plant extracts on Culex pipiens (Diptera: Cu-licidae), the West Nile virus vector. Sci Rep. 14(1): 19660.
31. Ghazawy NAR, Radwan IT, Gattan HS, Alruhaili MH, Baz MM, AbdelFattah EA, Mashlawi AM, Selim A (2025) As-afetida plant extract as potential antiox-idant, antimicrobial, and odor retardant insecticidal agent against Culex pipiens. Sci Rep. 15(1): 27076.
32. Procópio TF, Fernandes KM, Pontual EV, Ximenes RM, de Oliveira ARC, Souza CDS, de Albuquerque Melo AMM, Na-varro DMAF, Paiva PMG, Martins GF, Napoleão TH (2015) Schinus terebinthi-folius leaf extract causes midgut dam-age, interfering with survival and devel-opment of Aedes aegypti larvae. PLoS One. 10(5): e0126612.
33. Koomson CK (2023) Adulticidal, ovicidal and repellent potencies of Alchornea cor¬difolia (Schum. and Thonn.) in the man¬agement of the malaria vector Anophe¬les gambiae (Diptera: Cu¬licidae). Ar¬thropods. 12(4): 251–259.
34. Naimi I, Zefzoufi M, Bouamama H, M’ hamed TB (2022) Chemical compo¬sition and repellent effects of powders and es-sential oils of Artemisia absinthi¬um, Me-lia azedarach, Trigonella foe¬num-grae-cum and Peganum harmala on Tribo¬li-um castaneum (Herbst)(Coleoptera: Te-nebrio¬nidae). Ind Crops Prod. 182: 114817.
35. Ngo JK, Leyva GNC, Mariano SPP, Pin-gol SJA, Ramirez RB (2020) Determin-ing the effectiveness of neem and papa-ya leaves as mosquito repellent coil. J Phys Conf Ser. 1529(3): 032052.
36. Nyasembe VO, Tchouassi DP, Kirwa HK, Foster WA, Teal PE, Borgemeister C, Torto B (2014) Development and as-sessment of plantbased synthetic odor baits for surveillance and control of ma-laria vectors. PLoS One. 9(2): e89818.
37. Shilaluke KC, Moteetee AN (2022) Insec-ticidal activities and GC-MS analysis of the selected family members of Me¬liace-ae used traditionally as insecticides. Plants. 11(22): 3046.
38. Kamali M, Valizadeh J, Shaterian HR, Mottaghip¬isheh J (2023) Phytochemical Profiles and Antioxidant Activity of Ira-nian Melia azedarach L. J Med Plants By-products. 13(1): 51–56.
39. Omowanle J, Ayo RJ, Habila J, Ilekhaize J, Adegbe EA (2018) Physico-chemical and GC/MS analysis of some selected plant seed oils; castor, neem and rubber seed oils. FUW Trends Sci Tech J. 3: 644–651.
C, Thomas SM (2019) Do we know how mosquito disease vectors will respond to climate change?. Emerg Top Life Sci. 3(2): 115–132.
2. Brugman VA, Hernández-Triana LM, Med¬lock JM, Fooks AR, Carpenter S, John¬son N (2018) The role of Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) in virus trans¬mission in Europe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 15(2): 389.
3. Haba Y, McBride L (2022) Origin and sta-tus of Culex pipiens mosquito eco¬types. Curr Biol. 32(5): R237–R246.
4. Negi C, Verma P (2018). Review on Cu¬lex quinquefasciatus: Southern House Mos-quito. Int J Life Sci Res. 4(1): 1563–1566.
5. Sarwar M (2016) Mosquito-borne viral in-fections and diseases among persons and interfering with the vector activities. Int J Vaccines Vaccination. 3(2): 00063.
6. Mohammed BR, Yayo AM, Ajanusi OJ, Lawal IA (2021) Relative abundance and molecular identification of Culex pipiens complex (Diptera: Culicidae), in Kura Lo¬cal Government Area, North-western Ni¬geria. Parasite Epidem Cont. 14: e00213.
7. Koosha M, Oshaghi MA, Sedaghat MM, Vatandoost H, Azari-Hamidian S, Abai MR, Hanafi-Bojd AA, Mohtarami F (2017) Sequence analysis of mtDNA COI barcode region revealed three hap-lo¬types within Culex pipiens assem¬blage. Exp Parasitol. 181: 102–110.
8. Aanouz I, El Khatabi K, Belhassana A, Bouachrine M, Lakhlifi T, El Idrissi M (2020) Session 2/Oral 3D Quantitative structure activity and molecular docking of 2-hydroxyisoquinoline-1, 3-dione an-alogues as inhibitors of hiv reverse tran-scriptase associated ribonuclease H. Con¬grès International de l’Industrie En-vi¬ronnement et la Santé, 2020, October 5-8, Mohammedia, Morocco, p. 1.
9. Hemingway J, Hawkes NJ, McCarrol L, Ramnson H (2004) The molecular basis insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. In-sect Biochem and Mol Biol. 34: 653–665.
10. Davies TGE, Field LM, Usherwood PNR, Williamson MS (2007) DDT, pyre¬thrins, pyrethroids and insect sodium channels. J Int Union Biochem Mol Biol Life. 59 (3): 151–162.
11. Aktar MW, Sengupta D, Chowdhury A (2009) Impact of pesticides use in agri-culture: their benefits and hazards. In-terdiscip Toxicol. 2(1): 1–12.
12. Mnif W, Hassine AIH, Bouaziz A, Bartegi A, Thomas O, Roig B (2011) Effect of endocrine disruptor pesticides: a re¬view. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 8(6): 2265–2303.
13. Ghosh A, Chowdhury N, Chandra G (2012) Plant extracts as potential mos-quito lar¬vicides. Indian J Med Res. 135(5): 581–598.
14. Pavela R (2016) History, presence and per¬spective of using plant extracts as ef-fective mosquito larvicides: a review. Plant Protect Sci. 52(4): 229–241.
15. Chatterjee S, Sarkar B, Bag S, Biswal D, Mandal A, Bandyopadhyay R, Sarkar D, Chatterjee A, Saha NC (2024) Mitigat¬ing the public health issues caused by the filarial vector, Culex quinquefascia¬tus (Diptera: Culicidae) through phyto¬control and larval source marker man¬agement. Appl Biochem Biotech¬nol. 196(8): 5013–5044.
16. Ragavendran K, Selvakumaran J, Mu-thuKana¬gavel M, Ignacimuthu S, Alhar-bi NS, Thiruvengadam M, Mutheeswa-ran S, Ganesan P (2024) Effect of Mos-quitocidal, histopathological alteration and non-target effects of Sigesbeckia orien¬talis L. on Anopheles stephensi Liston, Culex quinquefasciatus Say and Aedes aegypti L. Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Re¬ports. 49: 100997.
17. Nathan SS, Savitha G, George DK, Nar-madha A, Suganya L, Chung PG (2006) Efficacy of Melia azedarach L. extract on the malarial vector Anopheles ste-phen¬si Liston (Diptera: Culicidae). Bio-resour Technol. 97(11): 1316–1323.
18. Harborne JB (1987) Metode Fitokimia: Penun¬tun Cara Modern Menganalisis Tum¬buhan (Phytochemical Method: a Modern Guide to Analyze Plants). 2nd edition. ITB publisher, West Java, Indo-nesia.
19. Sarikaya BB, Somer NU, Kaya GI, Onur MA, Bastida J, Berkov S (2013) GC-MS investigation and acetylcholinesterase in-hibitory activity of Galanthus rizehen¬sis. Z Naturforsch C J Biosci. 68(3–4): 118–124.
20. Govindarajan M, Rajeswary M, Arivoli S, Tennyson S, Benelli G (2016) Larvicid¬al and repellent potential of Zingiber nimmonii (J. Graham) Dalzell (Zingi¬ber-aceae) essential oil: an eco-friendly tool against malaria, dengue and lym¬phatic filariasis mosquito vectors?. J Parasitol Res. 115: 1807–1816.
21. Abbott WS (1925) The Value of the Dry Substitutes for Liquid Lime. J Econ En-tomol. 18: 265–267.
22. Abdulla NA, and Aljanabi MMK (2020) Toxicity of Aqueous and Organic Sol-vent Extracts of Melia azedarach (L) Leaves in the Larvae and Pupae of Cu-lex pipiens. Biopestic Int. 16(1): 13–19.
23. Hussein HS, Salem MZM, Soliman AM (2017) Repellent, attractive, and insecti-cidal effects of essential oils from Schi-nus terebinthifolius fruits and Corymbia citriodora leaves on two whitefly spe-cies, Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes ricini. Sci Hortic. 216: 111–119.
24. Veronesi R, Gentile G, Carrieri M, Mac-cagnani B, Stermieri L, Bellini R (2012) Seasonal pattern of daily activity of Ae-des caspius, Aedes detritus, Culex mod-estus and Culex pipiens in the Po Delta of northern Italy and significance for vec¬tor borne disease risk assessment. J Vec¬tor Ecol. 37(1): 49–61.
25. Mohammed NAG, Hassan AAH, Mo-hammed MO (2021) The effect of pyr-rolidinium bromide salt in the life of the southern cowpea beetle Callosobruchus Maculatus (Fab) (Coleoptera: Chrysome-lidae). IOP Conference Series: J Earth Environ Sci. 910 (1): 012140.
26. Souza APD, Vendramim JD (2000) Ati-vidade ovicida de extratos aquosos de meliáceas sobre a mosca branca Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) biótipo B em to-mateiro. Sci Agric. 57: 403–406.
27. Veni T, Pushpanathan T, Mohanraj J (2017) Larvicidal and ovicidal activity of Ter¬minalia chebula Retz. (Family: Combre¬taceae) medicinal plant extracts against Anopheles stephensi, Aedes ae-gypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. J Parasit Dis. 41(3): 693–702.
28. Ranchitha B, Umavathi S, Thangam Y, Revathi S (2016) Chemical Constituents and Larvicidal Efficacy of Melia azeda-rach L Leaf Extract against Dengue Vec¬tor Aedes aegypti L (Diptera : Cu-licidae ). Int J Innov Res Sci Eng Tech-nol. 5(3): 3060–3070.
29. Rudayni HA, Basher NS, AL-keridis LA, Ibrahim NA, Abdelmageed E (2021) The efficiency of ethanolic extract of Oci¬mum basilicum leaves and flowers agiainst mos¬quito larvae. Entomol Appl Sci Lett. 8 (3-2021): 46–53.
30. Baz MM, Selim AM, Radwan IT, Alkhai-bari AM, Gattan HS, Alruhaili MH, Alasmari SM, Gad ME (2024) Evaluat-ing larvicidal, ovicidal and growth in-hibiting activity of five medicinal plant extracts on Culex pipiens (Diptera: Cu-licidae), the West Nile virus vector. Sci Rep. 14(1): 19660.
31. Ghazawy NAR, Radwan IT, Gattan HS, Alruhaili MH, Baz MM, AbdelFattah EA, Mashlawi AM, Selim A (2025) As-afetida plant extract as potential antiox-idant, antimicrobial, and odor retardant insecticidal agent against Culex pipiens. Sci Rep. 15(1): 27076.
32. Procópio TF, Fernandes KM, Pontual EV, Ximenes RM, de Oliveira ARC, Souza CDS, de Albuquerque Melo AMM, Na-varro DMAF, Paiva PMG, Martins GF, Napoleão TH (2015) Schinus terebinthi-folius leaf extract causes midgut dam-age, interfering with survival and devel-opment of Aedes aegypti larvae. PLoS One. 10(5): e0126612.
33. Koomson CK (2023) Adulticidal, ovicidal and repellent potencies of Alchornea cor¬difolia (Schum. and Thonn.) in the man¬agement of the malaria vector Anophe¬les gambiae (Diptera: Cu¬licidae). Ar¬thropods. 12(4): 251–259.
34. Naimi I, Zefzoufi M, Bouamama H, M’ hamed TB (2022) Chemical compo¬sition and repellent effects of powders and es-sential oils of Artemisia absinthi¬um, Me-lia azedarach, Trigonella foe¬num-grae-cum and Peganum harmala on Tribo¬li-um castaneum (Herbst)(Coleoptera: Te-nebrio¬nidae). Ind Crops Prod. 182: 114817.
35. Ngo JK, Leyva GNC, Mariano SPP, Pin-gol SJA, Ramirez RB (2020) Determin-ing the effectiveness of neem and papa-ya leaves as mosquito repellent coil. J Phys Conf Ser. 1529(3): 032052.
36. Nyasembe VO, Tchouassi DP, Kirwa HK, Foster WA, Teal PE, Borgemeister C, Torto B (2014) Development and as-sessment of plantbased synthetic odor baits for surveillance and control of ma-laria vectors. PLoS One. 9(2): e89818.
37. Shilaluke KC, Moteetee AN (2022) Insec-ticidal activities and GC-MS analysis of the selected family members of Me¬liace-ae used traditionally as insecticides. Plants. 11(22): 3046.
38. Kamali M, Valizadeh J, Shaterian HR, Mottaghip¬isheh J (2023) Phytochemical Profiles and Antioxidant Activity of Ira-nian Melia azedarach L. J Med Plants By-products. 13(1): 51–56.
39. Omowanle J, Ayo RJ, Habila J, Ilekhaize J, Adegbe EA (2018) Physico-chemical and GC/MS analysis of some selected plant seed oils; castor, neem and rubber seed oils. FUW Trends Sci Tech J. 3: 644–651.
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How to Cite
1.
Hassan W, Zamani AA, Rashid Y, Jamshidi A. Chemical Composition and Control Potential of Melia azedarach Extracts Against Culex pipiens. J Arthropod Borne Dis. 2025;.
