Elsevier

Industrial Crops and Products

Volume 129, March 2019, Pages 424-433
Industrial Crops and Products

Mosquiticidal and repellent potential of formulations containing wood residue extracts of a Neotropical plant, Tabebuia heptaphylla

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2018.12.022Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Hexanic and chloroformic extracts of Tabebuia heptaphylla wood residues were tested.

  • The lapachol was a prevalent compound in both hexanic and chloroformic extracts.

  • The 2,6-di-tert-butylnaphthalene was the major constituent in the hexane extracts.

  • Both T. heptaphylla extracts deterred oviposition and controlled A. aegypti larvae.

  • Extracts incorporated in gel and cream formulations repelled A. aegypti.

Abstract

The use of wood residues and their extracts as sources for bioactive molecules not only helps to reduce the environmental impacts of the wastage produced by timber industry but also provide innumerous biotechnological application opportunities, including the development of novel insecticide products. Here, the insecticidal and repellent (in gel and cream formulations) potential of wood extracts of the Neotropical plant “purple ipê”, Tabebuia heptaphylla (Bignoniaceae) against the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti are investigated. Firstly, the chemical composition of the chloroform and hexane extracts obtained from T. heptaphylla residues is analyzed and their insecticidal activities are assessed against A. aegypti larvae. Furthermore, the repellence and oviposition deterrence actions of these extracts were evaluated against adult mosquito females. Computational docking analysis was also conducted to predict the physical interactions between the major constituents of the T. heptaphylla residue extracts and the odorant binding receptor of A. aegypti. Despite the fact that the 2,6-di-tert-butylnaphthalene was the major constituent (53.3%) in the T. heptaphylla hexanoic extract, the presence of lapachol, 2-hydroxy-3-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)-1,4-naphthalenedione, as major constituent in both wood extracts combined with the computational docking analysis, strongly suggest the lapachol as the major factor of the insecticidal/repellent effects of T. heptaphylla wood extracts. The computational docking analysis predicted significant binding of lapachol with the internal active pocket of the mosquito odorant binding receptor, which helps to explain the up to 3 h protection against bites of A. aegypti females provided by gel and cream formulations containing the T. heptaphylla residue extracts. Collectively, the findings demonstrated relevant biotechnological and environmentally-friend opportunities (i.e., production of biopesticides) for the wood residues produced by timber activities during the extraction and processing of T. heptaphylla trees.

Introduction

The yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti is the principal vector responsible for the transmission of many viral diseases, including dengue, chikungunya and zika with serious implications for economic and public health world wide (Olagnier et al., 2016; Moyes et al., 2017). To date, vaccines and drugs to all these diseases are not available and prevention programmes principaly depend on the elimination of mosquitoes by effectively killing the larvae using chemical larvicides or on enhancing the personal protection against biting from female adult by using bed nets and repellents (WHO, 2016 and 2013). Beside the reduced selectivity of the used chemicals and their adverse effects on the environment and human health, populations of A. aegypti from various regions of the planet are reported to be resistant to these insecticides used in mosquito control (Du et al., 2016; Haddi et al., 2017a; Moyes et al., 2017). Moreover, although several compounds have been evaluated, only few ones have had satisfactory repellent activity as did the N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide known commercialy as DEET (Peterson and Coats, 2001).

Plants extracts and their compounds have been intensively screened for insecticidal and repellent properties (Mossa, 2016; Isman, 2016; Pavela, 2015). Furthermore, because some plant-derived insecticidal and repellent compounds have been found to act on several targets and odorant receptors (Carey et al., 2010), they are expected to be less susceptible to resistance than are chemicals that act on a single target or receptor (Norris and Coats, 2017).

Nevertheless, during the past decades, an overwhelming number of reports on bioactivity of plant extracts and natural products in insects have been published but only few of these discoveries found their way to commercial application as new botanical insecticides (Isman, 2000; Haddi et al., 2017b). A major limitation faced in the production of a plant-based insecticide is still the availability of the plant resource (Isman et al., 2011). Hence, when cultivation or direct harvesting from natural populations of the plant in question cannot adequately satisfy the need for starting material on a commercial scale, screening of wastes or by-products from food and plant-based industries like wood residues and sawdust from agriculture and tropical timber operations can be a sustainable strategy (Isman et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2014).

The purple ipê, Tabebuia heptaphylla (Bignoniaceae), is a member of the large Bignoniaceae family that is widely dispersed throughout Brazil (Newman, 2017). Species of the genus Tabebuia have been used empirically in the Amazonian region for the treatment of several diseases, including syphilis, fever, malaria, cutaneous infections and stomach disorders (Newman, 2017). In addition to its medicinal and popular applications, there has been a wide flexibility in the uses of timber from the purple ipê especially in construction, ship building, flooring and heavy carpentry that led to a substantial expansion in its industry (Romagnoli et al., 2013) but also in the wood residues generated from this industry.

In the present study, the aim was to investigate the larvicidal, repellent and oviposition-deterring activities of wood residue extracts from T. heptaphylla against A. aegypti. In addition, the mechanism of interaction between the principal compounds of wood extracts from purple ipê with the A. aegypti odorant binding protein (AaegOBP1) receptor was investigated. Finally, the potential repellent of these extracts when incorporated into gel and cream formulations was evaluated with an eye toward development of a commercial repellent product.

Section snippets

Plant material, wood extracts preparation and insect population

The plant material derived from trees of T. heptaphylla planted in Gurupi, Tocantins, Brazil (11°44'27.05"S latitude, 49°3'52.70"W longitude). Branches containing leaves and flowers from T. heptaphylla trees were collected for taxonomic identification. The plant was identified at the herbarium of the Department of Environmental Studies of the Federal University of Tocantins (Campus Porto Nacional), where the specimen voucher was deposited under the code HTO-10000707.

The Wood residues were

Chemical composition of wood extracts from T. heptaphylla

The composition and identification of the principal compounds present in the hexane and chloroform extracts of wood residue of T. heptaphylla are shown in Table 1. The GC–MS chromatograms of the extracts of T. heptaphylla are shown in Fig. S1. The GC–MS revealed 10 compounds in the hexane extracts, while in chloroform extract only two compounds were identified. Although the major constituent in the hexane wood extracts was the naphthoquinone 2,6-di-tert-butylnaphthalene (53.32%), the principal

Discussion

The past decades have seen an increasing interest on the bioactivity of plant extracts and isolated natural products aiming the discovery and the commercial development of botanical insecticides. However, despite the recent efforts describing the biotechnological and commercial potential of some Neotropical plants (Aguiar et al., 2015; Ferreira et al., 2017; Lourenço et al., 2018), the relative availability of the plant resource has shown to be one of the limitations to the large-scale

Conclusions

For vector insects, particularly mosquitoes, repellents are important tools against the dessimination of parasitic diseases because the odor barrier creates a ‘safe zone’ to reduce encounters between the insect and the host. Phytochemicals are among the most attractive alternatives to be considered for the control of vector and pest insects. However, the relative availability of the plant resource can hamper the potential of plant-based insecticides and repellents. Therefore, search involving

Author contributions

Conception and design of the experiments: JB, EO, KH and RA. Performance of the experiments: KH, JB and JC. Analysis of the data: KH, RA, VN, JB and EO. Contribution of reagents/materials/analysis tools: JD, AC, SA, IS and NR. Writing of the manuscript: RA, JB, VN, EO and KH.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development [CNPq - CHAMADA PÚBLICA MCTI/CNPQ/CAPES/FAPS Nº 16/2014 - PROGRAMA INCT and E.E.O scholarships]; the State Tocantins Foundation for Research [FAPT/TO- N° Processo – 2014203000034]; the Graduate School Rede Bionorte (Biodiversidade e Biotecnologia); and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - CAPES foundations [K.H. and V.L.N. scholarships].

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