Insecticidal activity in vitro of the essential oil of Pogostemon cablin against Ctenocephalides felis felis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro insecticidal activity of the essential oil (EO) of P. cablin against immature and adult stages of C. felis. The chemical composition of P. cablin EO was determined by gas chromatography (GC). To evaluate the insecticidal activity, the egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages of C. felis were exposed to different concentrations of P. cablin EO diluted in acetone and impregnated in filter paper in a concentration range of 25 to 200 μg.cm(-2). After exposure, the material was incubated in climatized chambers and mortality assessment was performed after 24 h for the larval and adult stages, 72 h for the egg stage and 15 days for the pupal stage. After GC analysis, the major constituents of the EO of P. cablin were found to be patchoulol (27.4%), α-bulnesene (19.7%) and α-guayene (15.0%). The of mortality percentage was 100% at the concentration of 200 μg.cm(-2) for all stages. The LCs(50) values were 46.1, 49.2, 60.6 and 62.7 µg.cm(-2), respectively for the pupal, egg, larva and adult stages. Based on the results obtained, we can conclude that the EO of P. cablin contained patchoulol, α-bulnesene, and α-guayene as major constituents and had insecticidal activity against the immature and adult stages of C. felis.