Toxicity of Piper aduncum L. (Piperales: Piperaceae) from the Amazon forest for the cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Acari: Ixodidae)

Abstract The mortality of 14–21-day-old Rhipicephalus ( Boophilus ) microplus larvae, and the mortality and fertility of groups of engorged adult females exposed to different concentrations of hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts of spiked pepper ( Piper aduncum ) were evaluated, using a completely randomized design with five treatment groups, two control groups, and two replicates for the larvae and five replicates for the adult females. Similar methodology was used to investigate the toxicity of the essential oil hydro-distillate (94.84% dillapiole) obtained from the P. aduncum crude hexane extract. The LC 50 of the hexane extract was 9.30 mg ml −1 for larvae and the reproduction reduction ranged from 12.48% to 54.22%, while 0.1 mg/ml −1 of the essential oil induced 100% mortality in larvae. Literature reports on natural products active against R. microplus were listed and compared with the results presented here. These results indicate that P. aduncum extracts, and particularly its essential oil, are potential alternative control agents for R. microplus.