ABSTRACT
Mosquitoes present an immense threat to millions of people worldwide and act as vectors for filariasis disease. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of Allium sativum and Zingiber officinale extracts against filariasis vectors. The larvae were collected from the breeding site by using standard procedures for identification and larvicidal activities. Twenty grams (20 g) from each (Allium sativum and Zingiber officinale) were extracted separately by aqueous, ethanol, and methanol solvents. The phytochemical analysis was determined in the crude sample by using standard methods. Then, larvicidal effects were determined by introducing 10 larvae of the vectors to the concentrations of 250 ppm, 500 ppm, and 750 ppm of the crude sample, and data were subjected to probit analysis to determine the LC50 and Chi-squared test to check the significance of the mortality by R software. Anopheles funestus, Anopheles gambiae s.l., Anopheles pharoensis, Culex antennatus, and Culex quinquefasciatus were the filariasis vectors identified during the study period. The presence of phytochemical tests such as anthraquinones, flavonoids, glycosides, phenol, saponin, steroids, tannin, and terpenes was obtained. The larvicidal effects of the selected plant extracts ranged from 0%-100%. The lowest LC50 (53 ppm) was observed for A. sativum methanol test extract against Cx. quinquefasciatus. Ethanol extracts of A. sativum have a significant effect on An. funestus (X2 = 7.5, p = 0.02352) and Cx. quinquefasciatus (X2 = 10.833, p = 0.0.0044), whereas aqueous extracts have a significant effect only on An. gambiae s.l. (X2 = 7.0807, p = 0.029. Ethanol extracts of Z. officinale have a significant effect only on the mortality of An. pharoensis (X2 = 7.0807, p = 0.029), but methanol and aqueous extracts have no significant effect against filariasis vectors. In conclusion, A. sativum have a high toxic effect than Z. officinale extract against filariasis vectors in all type of solvents. So using those plant extracts is the best to reduce the risk of the synthetic chemical on nontarget organisms and the environment, in addition to the control of mosquito-borne diseases, but further studies will be conducted to evaluate the toxicity at different stages of the vectors.
