A brief review on medicinal plant Tagetes erecta Linn.

Medicinal plants, its derivatives and characterized secondary metabolites are widely used for medicinal purposes, are becoming popular all over the world as a natural alternative to synthetically produced chemicals both in Traditional and Allopathic system of medicine. The beneficial effect of herbal medicine typically result from the combination of secondary metabolites produced in the herbs such as glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, gums etc. There is a need for the documentation of research work carried out on these herbs, hence forth timely review on the herb Tagetes erecta Linn. Methodology used in the review is based on the published original research articles through exhaustive search through scientific databases; Saudi Digital Library, Pubmed, and Science Direct etc. Reviewed parameters are ethonomedicinal uses chemical constituents and pharmacological and non Pharmacological studies on medicinal plant Tagetes erecta Linn.

Tagetes erecta Linn. and its mosquitocidal potency against Culex quinquefasciatus

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate mosquitocidal effects of ethanolic extract of flowers of Tagetes erecta (T. erecta) and its chloroform and petroleum ether soluble fractions against the larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus (Cx. quinquefasciatus).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The fresh flowers of T. erecta were extracted in cold with ethanol (5.0 L) and after concentration, the ethanol extract was fractionated with chloroform and petroleum ether to afford a brownish syrupy suspension of ethanol extract (50.0 g), petroleum ether soluble fraction (18.6 g) and chloroform soluble fraction (23.8 g). The larvicidal effect of ethanol extract and their solvent fractions were determined by the standard procedure of WHO against different instars of Cx. quinquefasciatus.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the tested samples the chloroform soluble fractions showed the highest toxicity and consequently, the lowest LC50 values (14.14 µg/mL, 17.06 µg/mL, 36.88 µg/mL and 75.48 µg/mL) for all the instars larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus. The larvae showed comparative tolerance in the course of increasing age and time.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>It can be concluded that the flowers of T. erecta are very effective natural larvicide and could be useful against Cx. quinquefasciatus.</p>