Acaricidal investigation of commiphora swynnertonii (burtt) stem bark exudate

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate acaricidal potencies of Commiphora swynnertonii (Burtt) stem bark exudate against ticks Rhepicephalus appendiculatus and evaluate its toxicity using mice and rats. Commiphora swynnertonii exudate was prepared in soap solution and evaluated against the R. appendiculatus using adult immersion test method (AIT). The percent mortality, Index of laying eggs and percentage hatching were determined at concentrations of 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 25 and 12.5 mg/ml. The acute and sub-acute toxicity was determined by oral administration of the exudates to mice and rats at 500, 1000, 3000 and 250, 500, 1000 mg/Kg body weight respectively as a single (14 days) and daily dosing (28days). Physiological, behavioral changes, hematology, relative internal organs weights, biochemical and histopathology were assayed. Results show that at concentration above 25mg/ml there was significant mortality (p<0.05) of ticks treated with C. swynnertonii exudates. Inhibition of laid eggs was found to be significant at concentration greater than 90mg/ml (p<0.05). In addition hatching of eggs was completely inhibited in all treated groups. On the other hand oral toxicity results showed that, administration of C. swynnertonii exudates in mice and rats did not result into any observable toxicity during the experimental period. The current results indicate that C. swynnertonii exudate extract soap solution have acaricidal activity against R. appendiculatus and can be used as alternative measure to control ticks. Having lower toxicity levels reveal initial strategy for further findings and finally formulation acaricides from the plant exudate.