The Repellent Potential of Fresh Plants and Extracts From Garlic, Lemongrass and Pandan Leaves as Natural Repellent Against Periplaneta Americana (L.)

Lee, Teng Chun (2016) The Repellent Potential of Fresh Plants and Extracts From Garlic, Lemongrass and Pandan Leaves as Natural Repellent Against Periplaneta Americana (L.). Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Cockroaches are the most important and abundant pest in many homes buildings. Even though chemical control provides quick pest management and induces high mortality, resistance of cockroaches against the use of insecticides has been widely reported. Furthermore, synthetic chemical insecticides contain toxic active ingredients such as synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphates as active ingredients that can pose health hazards because of their carcinogenicity, long degradation period, and residual toxicity. The objective of this study is to investigate the repellent activity of fresh plants and crude extracts from garlic (Allium sativum), lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius) against American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) under laboratory conditions. Soxhlet extraction of garlic, lemongrass and pandan leaves was carried out using methanol and n-hexane. For the repellency tests, 0.1g of each extract and 1g of fresh plants were applied to 4-7 cm of exposed area on filter paper in the harborage prism-like box. The test was carried out for 3 days and the number of cockroaches hide in the harborage area was recorded in a day interval for 3 days. Phytochemical screening shown there is the presence of saponin, flavonoids, alkaloids, and terpenes in all plants. Fresh plant lemongrass showed the best repellent effect with average of 80% efficiency in the first day (n = 5), followed by pandan leaves, 60% and garlic, 31.6%. For the methanol extract, lemongrass also showed the best average repellent effect of 91.67% followed by pandan leaves, 61.66% and garlic, 22.22% among five replicates in the first day. Hence, lemongrass was the best natural repellent in both different type of test. Fresh plants produce higher repellent effect against American cockroach.