Plant derived larvicides as a tool to manage malaria in Kenya

Abstract

Malaria remains a serious parasitic disease killing over one million people annually. One of the strategies to manage the malaria problem is to control the population of mosquito at larval or adult stages of their life cycle. However with. the appearance of insect resistance to conventional insecticides together with the growing environmental concern on the use of many synthetic insecticides, in particular halogenated compounds such as DDT, the search for effective and environmentally friendly insecticidal agents is intensifying. In this effort some East African plant extracts and pure compounds have been tested for larvicidal activities (Muwangi and Mukiama, 1988; Mwangi and Rembold, 1988; Gikonyo et aI., 1998).