Essential oil of parsley and fractions to in vitro control of cattle ticks and dengue mosquitoes

The essential oil of Petroselinum crispum was extracted by hydrodistillation and its chemical composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The GC/MS method detected 31 constituents of the essential oil extracted from P. crispum, from which 26 were identified by the analysis. Phenylpropanoids were the major compounds, comprising 52.07% of the oil and consisting mainly of apiole (41.05%). The essential oil was subjected to classical chromatography and its four fractions (FR1, FR2, FR3 and FR4) showed acaricidal and larvicidal activity. The FR1 consists of myrcene (10.15%); limonene (9.72%); p-mentha-1,4,(8)-diene (20.99%) and p-mentha-1,5,8-triene (59.14%). The FR2 consists of ρ-cymen-8-ol (72.43%); α-terpineol (16.65%); trans-carveol (7.44%); citronellol (1.37%) and carveol (2.11%). The FR3 consists of myristicin (99.90%) and the FR4 of elemicin (1.87%); carotol (0.43%) and apiole (96.80%). Lethal concentrations (LC50 and LC99.9) of parsley’s essential oil on engorged female of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus were of 73, 400 μg/ml and of 109, 760 μg/ml, respectively. The values of LC50 and LC99.9 were 0.82 and 9.62 μg/ml, respectively for the fraction FR4. The larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti showed the best results in the fraction FR4, with values of LC50 and LC99.9 of 0.01 and 0.07 μg/ml, respectively. Results demonstrated that the parsley’s essential oil and its major compound apiole are potentially useful in the bio-control of R. (B.) microplus and A. aegypti. This work should support complementary studies to explore the use of the parsley’s essential oil in the bio-control of R. (B.) microplus and A. aegypti. Key words: Apiole, phenylpropanoids, monoterpenes, essential oil, parsley, Aedes aegypti, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, anticholinesterase.