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Essential oil components from Asarum sieboldii Miquel are toxic to the house dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae
Identifier
023840
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Parasitol Res. 2012 Nov;111(5):1895-9. doi: 10.1007/s00436-012-3032-5. Epub 2012 Jul 26. Essential oil components from Asarum sieboldii Miquel are toxic to the house dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae. Wu H1, Li J, Zhang F, Li L, Liu Z, He Z. 1College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen University, No. 3688, Nanhai Road, Shenzhen 518060, China. wuhq@szu.edu.cn
In our effort to develop novel plant-derived acaricides, we examined the contact and fumigant toxicity of Asarum heterotropoides (Asarum sieboldii Miquel) essential oil constituents to the house dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae (Acari: Pyroglyphidae).
Ten constituents, including methyl eugenol (relative amount 42.18 %), were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) in the A. sieboldii Miq. essential oil. In contact toxicity tests, methyl eugenol (4.2 μg/cm(2), 24 h LD50) was most toxic to D. farinae, followed by benzyl benzoate (9.1 μg/cm(2)), A. sieboldii Miq. essential oil (37.7 μg/cm(2)), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP 57.9 μg/cm(2)).
The potency of methyl eugenol and A. sieboldii Miq. essential oil was higher than benzyl benzoate and DBP, with mortalities of 100, 100, 94.6, and 13.2 %, respectively, after 2.5 h of exposure.
In the vapour phase mortality bioassay, methyl eugenol and A. sieboldii Miq. essential oil resulted in 100 % mortality in closed containers after 24-h exposure, but only 4.7 and 7.9 %, respectively, in open containers, indicating that the toxicity in these tests was largely due to the vapour phase. Methyl eugenol and A. sieboldii Miq. essential oil merit further study as potential D. farinae control compounds.
PMID: 22833176