Chemical composition and insecticidal activity of Cymbopogon citratus essential oil from Cuba and Brazil against housefly

• Main Authors: Zeneida Teixeira Pinto, Félix Fernández Sánchez, Arith Ramos dos Santos, Ana Claudia Fernandes Amaral, José Luiz Pinto Ferreira, Julio César Escalona-Arranz, Margareth Maria de Carvalho Queiroz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colégio Brasileiro de Parasitologia Veterinaria
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Parasitologia Veterinária
• Subjects: Vector control; essential oil; house-fly; lemongrass; Cymbopogon citratus
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1984-29612015000100005&lng=en&tlng=en

Essential oil of Cymbopogon citratus collected from Brazil and Cuba was tested to a chemical characterization and then was tested on the post-embryonic development of Musca domestica. The chemical composition analysis by GC-MS of the oils from Brazil/Cuba allowed the identification of 13 and 12 major constituents respectively; nine of them common to both. In the both oils, the main components were the isomers geranial and neral, which together form the compound citral. This corresponds to a total of 97.92%/Brazil and 97.69%/Cuba of the compounds identified. The monoterpene myrcene, observed only in the sample of Cuba, presented a large relative abundance (6.52%). The essential oil of C. citratus (Brazil/Cuba) was dissolved in DMSO and tested at concentrations of 5, 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100% and citral was prepared by mixing 16.8 mg with 960 µL DMSO. Both essential oils and monoterpene citral were applied topically to newly-hatched larvae (1µL/larva). The results showed a lethal concentration (LC50) of 4.25 and 3.24% for the Brazilian and Cuban essential oils, respectively. Mortalities of larval and newly-hatched larvae to adult periods were dose-dependent for the two both oils as for monoterpene citral, reaching 90%. Both essential oils and citral caused morphological changes in adult specimens.