Elsevier

Chemosphere

Volume 63, Issue 9, June 2006, Pages 1568-1574
Chemosphere

Molluscicidal activity of Ferula asafoetida, Syzygium aromaticum and Carum carvi and their active components against the snail Lymnaea acuminata

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2005.08.071Get rights and content

Abstract

The molluscicidal activity of dried root latex powder of Ferula asafoetida, flower-bud powder of Syzygium aromaticum and seed powder of Carum carvi against the snail Lymnaea acuminata was studied. The molluscicidal activity of all the three plant products was found to be both time and concentration dependent. The toxicity of S. aromaticum flower-bud powder (96 h LC50:51.98 mg/l) was more pronounced than that of root latex powder of F. asafoetida (96 h LC50:82.71 mg/l) and seed powder of C. carvi (96 h LC50:140.58 mg/l). Ethanol extract was more toxic than other organic extracts. The ethanol extract of S. aromaticum (24 h LC50:83.53 mg/l) was more effective than that of F. asafoetida (24 h LC50:132.31 mg/l) and C. carvi (24 h LC50:130.61 mg/l) in killing the test animals. The 96 h LC50 of column purified fraction of seed powder of C. carvi was 5.40 mg/l whereas those of flower-bud powder of S. aromaticum and dried root latex powder of F. asafoetida were 7.87 and 9.67 mg/l, respectively. The product of F. asafoetida, S. aromaticum and C. carvi may be used as potent molluscicides.

Introduction

The snail Lymnaea acuminata is the intermediate host of the flukes Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica which cause endemic fascioliasis in the cattle population of northern India (Singh and Agarwal, 1981, Agarwal and Singh, 1988). One of the major preventive steps against fascioliasis is the control of the vector snail population. Several attempts have been made to reduce the incidence of fascioliasis by using synthetic pesticides and different plant products against the transmitting snails (Agarwal and Singh, 1988, Singh et al., 1996). Bioactive products of plant origin have become the focus of attention because they are less expensive and hazardous to the environment than their synthetic counterparts. A large number of plant products which possess molluscicidal activity have been identified (Hosttetmann and Lea, 1987, Singh et al., 1996, Rao and Singh, 2002, Singh et al., 2005).

Spices have been used in food preparations in tropical and sub tropical countries for a long time (Pruthi, 1992). In Ayurveda and Greaco Arabic system of medicine, several spices are described as having medicinal effects (Srivastava and Mustafa, 1993). Earlier it has been reported that certain spices such as Allium sativum, Zingiber officinale, Allium cepa and Cinnamomum tamala are potent molluscicides (Singh and Singh, 1995, Singh et al., 1997, Srivastava, 2004). Common spices Ferula asafoetida, Sygygium aromaticum and Carum carvi are known to possess antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antispasmodic and antihelminthic activity (Bakker et al., 1995, Poolman et al., 1995, Hirotaka et al., 2003, Fatehi et al., 2004). The present investigation reports the molluscicidal effect of the common spice plants i.e. F. asafoetida, S. aromaticum and C. carvi against the harmful snail Lymnaea acuminata.

Section snippets

Animals

Adult Lymnaea acuminata (2.25 ± 0.20 cm in length) were collected locally and used as experimental animals. The animals were allowed to acclimatize for 72 h in laboratory conditions. Ten experimental animals were kept in a glass aquaria containing 3 l of dechlorinated tap water at 22 °C to 24 °C. The pH of the water was 7.1–7.3 and dissolved oxygen, free carbon dioxide and bicarbonate alkalinity were 6.5–7.2 mg/l, 5.2–6.3 mg/l and 102.0–105.0 mg/l, respectively. Dead animals were removed immediately from

Results

The toxicity of dried root latex powder of F. asafoetida, flower-bud powder of S. aromaticum, seed powder of C. carvi and their organic solvent extracted fractions against L. acuminata were time and concentration dependent. The LC50 of dried root latex powder of F. asafoetida, flower-bud powder of S. aromaticum and seed powder of C. carvi at 24 h were 175.04, 172.75, 269.96 and at 96 h 82.71, 51.98, 140.58 mg/l, respectively (Table 2, Table 3, Table 4).

Among the organic solvent extracted

Discussion

The present results clearly indicate that the dried root latex powder of F. asafoetida, flower-bud powder of S. aromaticum and seed powder of C. carvi are important sources of botanical molluscicides. The toxicity study revealed that toxic components of all the three spices are soluble in water. Their toxic effects are time as well as concentration dependant as evident from negative regression between exposure time and LC50 of different treatments. Higher toxicity of ethanol extract among other

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