Acaricidal activity of the organic extracts of thirteen South African plants against Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus (Acari: Ixodidae)

• The African blue tick, R. (B.) decoloratus, is found in Africa and Asia.
• This tick affects cattle production as well as vector pathogens.
• The extracts of two plants species have potent activity against R. (B.) decoloratus.
• The extracts of these plants species have low toxicity against Vero cells.

The African blue tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus, is a common tick species found in South Africa and affects cattle production as well as vectoring pathogens in regions of Africa and Asia. In an attempt to develop a non-toxic, lower cost and environmentally friendly tick control method, twenty-six plant extracts were prepared from thirteen plant species using 99.5% acetone and 99% ethanol. The adapted Shaw Larval Immersion Test (SLIT) was used to test the efficacy of the extracts. A 1% solution of each of the plant extracts was prepared for efficacy testing and the ethanol extracts were found to have better acaricidal activity than the acetone extracts. The ethanol extract from the leaves and flowers of Calpurnia aurea had the best activity [corrected mortality (CM) = 82.9%] which was followed by the stem extract of Cissus quadrangularis (CM = 80.4%). The plant species were screened against Vero cells and were found to have low toxicity. From this study it is apparent that there is potential for the development of botanicals as natural acaricides against R. (B.) decoloratus.

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