Essential Oils of Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) Family Taxa as Emerging Potent Agents for Mosquito Control

Warm-humid areas around the globe constitute the cradle of humanity, providing their inhabitants the most favorable environments for living and agricultural production. In this “Garden of Eden”, which spreads within the globe’s temperate and tropical zones, is also thriving an annoying but dangerous daemon, the mosquito. This little devil constitutes the main vector of malaria and human encephalitis, both infectious diseases that account as major threats of public health (Becker et al., 2003). Recently, these threats have been spread to a broader geographical area, as a consequence of their vectors (Aedes sp., Anopheles sp. and Culex sp.) introduction into metropolitan areas of northern hemisphere, such as Chicago (Tedesco et al., 2010), New York (Peterson et al., 2006) and Paris (Delaunay et al., 2009). Since mosquito breeding habitats in both urban and rural areas are man-made (Imbahale et al., 2010), there are several restrictions limiting the efforts towards the development of an integrated vector management system. Todate, the history of evolutions of malaria vector interventions is directly connected with the mosquito control tools development, concerning either environmental modifications/manipulations or their chemical and/or biological control (Kilama, 2009).