Evaluation of Pistia stratiotes fractions as effective larvicide against Anopheles mosquitoes

Mosquito are well-known vectors that cause diseases particularly malaria and filariasis which are detrimental to human health. These vectors occur mainly in tropical countries where more than 2 billion people live in endemic regions with about one million deaths been claimed yearly from malaria and filariasis. The study is aimed at evaluating the larvicidal activity of Pistia stratiotes fractions on Anopheles mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). The ethyl acetate extract of P. stratiotes was obtained through percolation process and was chromatographed to yield nine fractions. The larvicidal activity of each of the nine fractions was tested in triplicates by exposing the larvae to 500, 250, 125, 62.5 and 31.3 µg/ml, respectively. Phytochemical screening of the nine fractions revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides and phlobatannins in varying quantities. The result obtained shows that fraction E has the highest lethal effect on the Anopheles larvae at LC₅₀ =14.81 µg/ml and was weakly effective at 602.03 µg/ml on brine shrimp larvae. The gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis of fraction E revealed the presence of 35 pre-cursor compounds. Hence, ethyl acetate fractions of P. stratiotes could be an effective larvicide against Anopheles mosquito larvae as it has been found to be harmless to other aquatic organisms. Further work should be done on other aquatic weeds that have larvicidal potential to isolate the bioactive compounds.