Chemical Composition and Larvicidal Activity of Essential Oil from Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle bark Against Aedes aegypti Larvae

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Aedes aegypti is the main vector of diseases such as dengue, zika and chikungunya.The main way to combat it is the use of chemical insecticides, which in the literature have shown some disadvantages, such as: resistance of the mosquito vector and attack on non-target organisms.One of the alternatives with the idea of complementing the use of chemical insecticides or even replacing it is in the investigation of essential oils extracted from plants.In this study, we investigated the main constituent, the predominant class and the biological activity of the essential oil extracted from the bark of Citrus aurantifolia against third-stage larvae of Aedes aegypti.For this, we extracted the oil by hydrodistillation, identified its components by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and calculated the lethal concentration of larvicidal activity by the Probit method.The results showed the predominance of monoterpernes in the extracted oil, the main compounds being limonene.The oil showed larvicidal activity with a lethal concentration (LC 50 ) of 18.68 µg/mL.Thus, we conclude that the oil is active and has the potential to replace or complement chemical larvicides.