Toxicity of plants as insecticides against human pathogenic mosquito vectors of Saudi Arabian strains—A review

Abstract

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are considered to be huge threat among millions of peoples, animals, and other living organisms in the world. Most of the vector borne diseases such as malaria, filariasis, dengue hemorrhagic fever, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis etc., created huge impact on humans in all over the world. Vector diseases in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are increasing day by day and their control measures taken through the government sectors for eradicating the vectors helps in controlling the diseases but still more approaches to be implemented or assimilated. Most of the synthetic or chemical based insecticides to control mosquitoes developed resistance among their communities even though they showed their potential in controlling the vector in initial days. Botanical insecticides from plant-based origin such as active compounds, essential oils, green synthesized nanomaterials, and microbial secondary metabolites helps more efficiency in controlling vectors. Mode of action against vectors differs based on its persisting active ingredients, such as larvicidal, pupicidal, adulticidal, oviposition, morphological changes etc. Even though number of research works has been carried out against mosquito species, there is only limited number of studies undergone against mosquito vectors from Saudi Arabia origin. Hence this review will give us the current knowledge on the effectiveness of botanical insecticides against major mosquito vectors from Saudi Arabia. Thus, it gives more significant against medical and veterinary sectors.