Author(s):

Prathyusha Kantheti, Padma Alapati and Shaik Khateeja Sulthana

Abstract: Mosquito population has spread all around the world except Iceland, Antarctica and few smaller islands, where there is no possibility for mosquitoes to breed. Mosquitoes generally desire to reside at humid, dark and warm places to reproduce. Mosquitoes have become the major nuisance to the society in spreading different diseases like dengue, malaria and many other diseases which causes around 1 million deaths of people according to WHO. Many trials were being made to control the population of mosquitoes like eliminating the breeding places, rearing of predator fishes which mainly depend on the larvae of mosquitoes, introducing large number of sterile males and genetic methods including cytoplasm incompatibility. Apart from this control measures, many mosquito repellents are available in the market to protect people from mosquitoes bites. Repellents are available in many forms like spatial, chemical, natural and gadgets which can repel mosquitoes. Now a days people have become health conscious and are concentrating on natural repellents and natural ways of repelling mosquitoes. Many plant species having mosquito repellent properties are aboriginal to tropical regions. Many companies are using these plant sources as a base for production of mosquito repellent products. In west central India there are no of plant species that are used for personal protection against mosquitoes by tribes. Through the present review 55 plant varieties belonging to different families were reviewed from secondary data which were proven to be used as repellent sources by tribes of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana against host seeking mosquitoes. The plant species used in almost all tribal areas of the above mentioned states are Vitex negundo Linn, Ocimum Basilicum Linn, Eclipta alba (L.) and Lantana camera (L.) in different forms like hanging the dried plant stems above the entrance doors and windows, application of plant extracts on the exposed body parts and the fog of the burned plant parts is used to drive away the mosquitoes.

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