Analysis of Pyrethrum Plant: Implication for control of Mosquitoe

science education

The study extracted and analysed Pyrethrins and Pyrethrosin from Pyrethrum Plant. The species used for this study is the Chrysanthenum cinerrafolium. Pyrethrins have been analyzed by a number of analytical techniques e.g.HPLC, GLC, TLC, colorimetric, polarographic, etc. This work reports on the simultaneous quantitative HPLC analysis of pyrethrins and pyrethrosin using HPLC column and aqueous methanol (90:10:v/v) as the eluent. Analysis of a mixture of Pyrethrosin and Pyrethrins standards computer printout gave three peaks relating to pyrethrosin (retention time 2.40 minutes); pyrethrins II (retention time 4.00 minutes) and pyrethrins I (retention time of 6.00 minutes). Statistical analysis of the data obtained revealed that there was no correlation between pyrethrins and pyrethrosin concentration. It also shows that there is no significant difference in Pyrethrins for the ray florets for both flowers A(1.80) and B (2.22) studied. It also revealed that Pyrethrins content is highest in ray florets (3.53) in flower B and lowest(0.08 ) in petals in flower A. For the 2 types of mosquito coils studied, both have shown to have pyrethrins and pyrethrosin, it also revealed that Mean Pyrethrosin concentration % (w/w) in Swan off mosquito coil is higher (0.70) than that in Ramboh mosquito coil (0.30). Mean Pyrethrins Concentration % (w/w) in Swan off mosquito coil (1.03 is higher) than that in Ramboh mosquito coil (0.11). from the analysis, Pyrethrum plant contains active ingredient(Pyrethrosin and Pyrethrins) that can repel, knockdown a variety of insects but harmless to animals. This paper recommended that safe levels of pyrethrosin should be established to know whether the levels of pyrethrosin in these two types of mosquito coils are high enough to be harmful or not. Further Studies should be conducted to establish the effects of burning a mosquito coil containing pyrethrosin and assess the lethal dose.

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