The chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from the aerial parts of Laurus nobilis L. has been examined by gas chromatography (GC) and GC- mass spectrometery (MS). The main components of the oil were identified. 1,8-Cineole was the major component in the oil together with b-terpinyl acetate, terpinene-4-ol, a-pinene, b-pinene, p-cymene, linalool and ...

Most delta-endotoxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis require proteolytic processing in order to become active. The in vitro and in vivo activation processes of Cry39A, a delta-endotoxin that is highly toxic to Anopheles stephensi, were investigated. Cry39A with a molecular mass of 72 kDa was processed in vitro into a 60 kDa fragment by trypsin and gut extract from A. stephensi larvae. N-ter...

Flavobacteria (members of the family Flavobacteriaceae) dominate the bacterial community in the Anopheles mosquito midgut. One such commensal, Elizabethkingia anophelis, is closely associated with Anopheles mosquitoes through transstadial persistence (i.e., from one life stage to the next); these and other properties favor its development for paratransgenic applications in control of malaria pa...

In this study, we synthesized and characterized (UV–vis, XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, AFM) Trewia nudiflora-assisted silver nanoparticles (Tn-AgNPs). The toxicity of T. nudiflora leaf aqueous extract Tn-AgNPs was tested against Anopheles stephensi, Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus larvae its LC50 values were 121.82/16.69, 130.51/18.11, 142.38/19.53 μg mL–1, respectively. Moreover, the biotoxicity ...

The efficacy of leaf extracts of Momordica charantia and Bacillus thuringiensis has been proven against larvicidal and pupicidal activities of the malarial vector, Anopheles stephensi. The present study investigated the larvicidal and pupicidal activity against the first to fourth instar lavae and pupae of the laboratory-reared mosquitoes, An. stephensi. The plant extract showed larvicidal and ...

Food utilization by the larvae of Toxorhynchites splendens (Wiedemann) was studied in the laboratory by offering larvae of Aedes aegypti Linnaeus, Anopheles stephensi (Liston), and Culex quinquefasciatus (Say). Quantitative analyses of data indicated that immature development was significantly faster with increase in food availability. The regression analysis showed that the degrees of the rela...

1School of Public Health and Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Received: 22/10/02; accepted: 18/08/03 ABSTRACT An insecticide containing azadirachtin, a neem tree (Azadirachta indica) extract, was tested against mosquito larvae in the Islamic Republic of Iran under laboratory and field conditions. LC50 and LC90 values for Neema...

Ligand-blotting experiments on dipteran brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) showed binding of CryIVD toxin of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis to proteins of 148 kDa in Anopheles stephensi and of 78 kDa in Tipula oleracea, both species being susceptible to CryIVD. Binding of CryIVD with BBMVs of A. stephensi resulted in a stronger signal than with BBMVs of T. oleracea. Likewise, lar...

It is estimated that every year malaria infects approximately 300 million people and accounts for the death of 2 million individuals. The Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria in humans are transmitted exclusively by mosquito species belonging to the Anopheles genus. The recent development of a gene transfer technology for Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, using the Minos transposable element m...