Annona muricata: An alternate mosquito control agent with special reference to inhibition of detoxifying enzymes in Aedes aegypti.

This study was aimed to investigate an effectual level of Annona muricata (soursop) extracts on mosquito vectors namely, Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi and Culex quinquefasciatus. The toxicity study on non-target organism and other important biochemical marker enzymes to find and illustrate the exact mechanism of specific enzymes responsible for detoxifying allelochemicals. Among the various soursop seed kernel extracts tested for larvicidal activity, the 0.9% saline extract exhibited maximum mortality (100%) against three vectors at the lowest concentration for 24 h exposure. Based on these findings, the saline extract was opted for further studies including toxicity on non-target organism and systemic effects on important biochemical constituents in the larvae A. aegypti at the lethal threshold time (18 h) with LC₅₀ concentration (0.009 mg/mL). The tested extract against non-target aquatic fourth instar larvae Chironomus costatus was safe up to 0.0028 mg/mL for 24 h exposure and the mortality was observed only above the concentration 0.0028 mg/mL used in the study. The systemic effects on main neuron transmitter Acetylcholinesterase (p ≤ 0.01), xenobiotics detoxifying enzyme of α-and β-carboxylesterase (p ≤ 0.05; p ≤ 0.01) and antioxidant enzyme glutathione S-transferase (p ≤ 0.05) were reduced significantly in quantitative analysis. Analysis of such biochemical constituents of proteins and enzymes α-and β-carboxylesterase were considerably down regulated in the resolving native-PAGE. In contrast, acid and alkaline phosphatase were upregulated in both quantitative and qualitative analysis. This investigation clearly demonstrates the soursop extract has potent larvicidal agent with alterations in biochemical constituents of exposed larvae of A. aegypti.