Evaluation of Melaleuca cajuputi (Family: Myrtaceae) Essen tial Oil in Aerosol Spray Cans against Dengue Vectors in Low Cost Housing Flats

Background: Melaleuca cajuputi essential oil in aerosol spray was evaluated against the dengue vectors Aedes ae-gypti and Ae. albopictus at low cost housing flats in Section 10, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Methods: Essential oil in aerosol viz: 5% and 10% of concentrations were sprayed for 5 seconds each towards hung mos-quitoes in 5 cylindrical net cages. Aerosol weights were recorded before and after spraying to determine dis-charge rates. Knockdown and mortality number were observed and compared to MS standard aerosol which contain 0.07% prallethrin and 0.05% d-phenothrin as positive control and aerosol contain 40% kerosene and 60% LPG was used as negative control. Results: High knockdown and mortality was observed in both species of mosquitoes towards MS standard aerosol. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) of mortality and knockdown between 5% and 10% of essential oil aero-sol and 5% and 10% essential oil between MS standard. For 5% essential oil, mean percentage (%) of knockdown and mortality of Ae. aegypti displayed slightly higher compared to Ae. albopictus. Spraying with 5% M. cajuputi essen-tial oil aerosol indicated a knockdown of Ae. aegypti 5.60±1.18 and mortality of 22.90±4.22 while Ae. albopic-tus showed 4.60±0.89 knockdown and 20.00±2.85 mortality. The 10% essential oil concentration gave 23.60±1.68 knock-down and 48.05±0.37 mortality for Ae. aegypti. Ae. albopictus gave 23.00±3.16 knockdown and 44.20 ± 2.10 mortal-ity respectively. Conclusions: Extracts of essential oils does possessed an adulticidal effects and could be considered and utilized for fu-ture dengue vectors control.