Chicory (Cichorium intybus) and wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) extracts exhibit strong larvicidal activity against mosquito vectors of malaria, dengue fever, and filariasis

Vector-borne diseases transmitted by mosquitoes cause globally important diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and filariasis. The incidence of these diseases can be reduced through mosquito control programs but these control programs currently rely on synthetic insecticides that can impact the environment, and has selected widespread mosquito resistance. Environment friendly and biodegradable natural insecticides discovered in plants offer an alternative approach to mosquito control. Here, we investigated extracts from root or aerial parts of Chicory (Cichorium intybus) and wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) against the early 4th instar larvae of Anopheles stephensi (malaria vector), Aedes aegypti (dengue fever vector), and Culex quinquefasciatus (filariasis vector). The root and aerial parts extracts of A. absinthium and C. intybus at 200, 100, 50, 25 and 12.5 ppm caused significant mortality of the tested mosquito species. Root extracts exhibited higher larvicidal activity that aerial part extracts. The highest larvicidal activity was recorded in methanol extract of roots of C. intybus with LC50 = 66.16, 18.88 and LC-90 = 197.56, 107.16 ppm for An. stephensi; LC50 = 78.51, 40.15 and LC90 = 277.31, 231.28 ppm for Ae. aegypti and LC50 = 103.99, 64.56 and LC-90 = 314.04, 247.54 ppm for Cx. quinquefasciatus. These results reveal potent mosquito larvicidal activity against vectors of malaria, dengue fever, and filariasis is present in extracts of chicory and wormwood.