Chemical composition of Artemesia herba-alba essential oil and its larvicidal and pupicidal effects against Culex pipiens (Diptera; Culicidae)

Artemisia herba-alba Asso (A. herba-alba) (Asteraceae) is widely used in herbal medicine as it is a mine of natural molecules such as davanone, which is an interesting product on the international market. The present research proposes a method for controlling the late larval (L4) and pupal stages of Culex pipiens based on the essential oil of A. herba-alba. The aerial part of this plant was extracted by hydrodistillation and then analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (CPG/SM) to determine its chemical composition. Three concentrations (1, 5 and 10 μl/ml) were prepared and directly tested on larvae (L4) and pupae under laboratory conditions to measure LC50, LC90, LT50, and LT90 values. The yield obtained in this study was 1.5%. Further, the analysis showed that the oil of A. herba-alba is a davanone chemotype that consists mainly of davanone (48.8%). The efficiency of this essential oil for toxicological parameters (LC50 and LC90) were 3.278 μl/ml and 7.573 μl/ml for larvae, and 1.213 μl/ml and 2.288 μl/ml for pupae. This study indicates that the essential oil of A. herba-alba has toxic properties for Cx. pipiens larvae and pupae. These results are encouraging and open up exciting and promising horizons for its application in the production of bioinsecticides.