[Acute toxicity of ginger essential oil to Drosophila melanogaster]

Drosophila melanogaster adults were fed with different concentration ginger essential oil, and time-dosage-mortality model was used to simulate their cumulative mortality within 96 h. The results indicated that higher concentrations of ginger essential oil had high acute toxicity to D. melanogaster adults. Seventy-two hours after treated with 0.5% ginger essential oil, the cumulative mortality of the adults was 88% for female and 79% for male, while with 1% and 10% ginger essential oil, the cumulative mortality of both female and male adults was up to 100%. The LC50 of ginger essential oil decreased gradually with increasing time. Tween-20 as an emulsifying agent also had high toxicity to D. melanogaster adults, especially to male adults, which was more obvious in high concentrations.