Biochemistry & Pharmacology: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0501
ISSN: 2167-0501
S. Ghosh, A. K. S. Rawat, Sharad Srivastava, Subha Rastogi, Anil Kumar Sharma, Sachin Kumar, Shashi Shankar Tewari, Gaurav Nagar, and D. D. Ray
Accepted Abstracts: Biochem & Pharmacol
The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus is one of the most economically important tick species throughout tropical and sub-tropical countries and damaging the livestock industries. Use of synthetic chemicals is the backbone to control tick infestations. However, ticks have developed resistance to most of the available insecticides and there is an urgent need to develop ecofriendly alternatives to chemicals. In the present study, plant extracts were screened and three herbal extracts were identified as eco-friendly antitick products. Different parts of selected plants were subjected to solvent guided extraction and biological activity was screened against reference susceptible IVRI-1 line of R. (B.) microplus using adult immersion test (AIT). Amongst the 36 plant extracts, only three extracts prepared from Acorus calamus rhizome, Ricinus communis leaf and Semecarpus anacardium fruits showed acaricidal activity. Probit analysis of dose response data of A. calamus , R. communis and S. anacardium extracts determined the LC85 values of 9.14, 9.68 and 10.5%, respectively. The extracts of R. communis and S. anacardium were also found efficacious against multi- acaricide resistant IVRI-V tick line of R.(B.) microplus showing 53.3 � 6.7 and 73.3 � 3.3% mortality. The identified extracts affected the reproductive physiology of treated ticks significantly inhibiting the oviposition. Both the extracts were found safe in rabbit model at 5x concentration and no allergic reaction, staining, pruritis, and erythematic lesion were noted. In vivo efficacy of A. calamus and R. communis also confirmed the efficacy upto 40.6 and 59.9%, respectively, during 1 st larval challenge. The HPTLC finger print profile of A. calamus revealed the presence of α-Asarone as a marker compound while R. communis leaf extract under λ max -254 showed quercetin, gallic acid, flavone and kaempferol which seemed to have better acaricidal action in cumulative form against R.(B.) microplus. The HPTLC profile of S. anacardium extract showed catechol as a marker compound under UV-254 nm. Besides antitick properties, the antioxidant property of R. communi s and S. anacardium extracts was determined by DPPH (2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging ability test. The possibility of using the herbal extracts as an alternative to chemical acaricides for the control of cattle ticks is discussed.