ABSTRACT
Blighia sapida is a medicinal plant used in Southern Nigeria for the treatment of some eye ailments and headache. The Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM), Ghana, has used this plant for the treatment of diarrhea for over 20 years. Objective: This study was designed to investigate the lethal effect of aqueous, ethanol, and ethyl acetate extracts of the leaf of B. sapida on fourth instar larvae of An. gambiae, Cu. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti. Methods: The lethal effect of aqueous, ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts of the leaves of B. sapida at concentrations of 0.15, 0.30, 0.45, 0.60 and 0.75% w/v each were investigated in static bioassays on 4th 15 instar larvae of An. gambiae, Cu. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti. Results: The 72hLC50 values of the aqueous extract were 0.393, 0.488 and 0.423%w/v for larvae of An. gambiae, Cu. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti respectively, while the values for the ethanol extract were 0.319, 0.407 and 0.384%w/v for An. gambiae, Cu. quinefasciatus and Ae. aegypti larvae respectively. For the ethyl acetate extract tested against larvae of An. gambiae, Cu. quinquefasciatus and Ae. agypti, the 72hLC50 values were 0.135, 0.177 and 0.133% w/v respectively. As judged by the 72hLC50 values ethyl acetate extract was the most potent of the three extracts. Conclusions: Results obtained demonstrate that the leaves of B. sapida have marked larvicidal potential against mosquito larvae used in this study.