Promising Larvicidal Effects of Nanoliposomes Containing Carvone and Mentha spicata and Tanacetum balsamita Essential Oils Against Anopheles stephensi.

Purpose: The use of synthetic pesticides to control the spread of mosquito-borne diseases has caused environmental pollution and insecticide resistance in mosquitoes. Developments of new green insecticides have thus received more attention to overcome these problems.
Methods: Nanoliposomes containing carvone and essential oils were first prepared. The nanoliposome physicochemical characteristics (particle size, morphology, and successful loading) were then evaluated by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and the Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform InfraRed (ATR-FTIR) analyses. Larvicidal effects of carvone, Mentha spicata, and Tanacetum balsamita essential oils were investigated against the main malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi, in non-formulated and nanoformulated states.
Results: The larvicidal effects of nanoformulated states were significantly more potent (7.2 folds, 3.5 folds, and 8 folds) than non-formulated states. Nanoliposomes containing M. spicata and T. balsamita essential oils with particle sizes of 175 ± 8 and 184 ± 5 nm showed the best efficacies (LC50 values = 9.74 and 9.36 μg/mL).
Conclusion: The prepared samples could be used as new green potent larvicides against An stephensi mosquito in further field trials. It is also recommended to investigate their efficacies against other mosquitoes.
(© 2023. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Witold Stefański Institute of Parasitology, Polish Academy of Sciences.)