In Silico Study and Excito-Repellent Activity of Vitex negundo L. Essential Oil against Anopheles gambiae

(1) Background: Essential oil from Vitex negundo is known to have repellent and insecticidal properties toward the Anopheles gambiae and this is linked to its monoterpene and sesquiterpene content. In this work, an effort is made to delineate the constitution of V. negundo essential oil (VNEO) and their interaction with odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) of A. gambiae and hence access its repellent efficiency as cost-effective and safer malaria vector control alternatives. (2) Methods: Anopheles species authentication was performed by genomic DNA analysis and was subjected to behavioral analysis. GC-MS profiling was used to identify individual components of VNEO. Anopheles OBPs were obtained from the RCSB protein data bank and used for docking studies. Determination of ligand efficiency metrics and QSAR studies were performed using Hyper Chem Professional 8.0.3, and molecular dynamics simulations were performed using the Desmond module. (3) Results: GC-MS analysis of VNEO showed 28 compounds (monoterpenes, 80.16%; sesquiterpenes, 7.63%; and unknown constituents, 10.88%). The ligand efficiency metrics of all four ligands against the OBP 7 were within acceptable ranges. beta-selinene (-12.2 kcal/mol), beta-caryophellene (-9.5 kcal/mol), sulcatone (-10.9 kcal/mol), and alpha-ylangene (-9.3 kcal/mol) showed the strongest binding affinities for the target proteins. The most stable hydrophobic interactions were observed between beta-selinene (Phe111 and Phe120), Sulcatone (Phe54 and Phe120), and alpha-ylangene (Phe111), while only sulcatone (Tyr49) presented H-bond interactions in the simulated environment. (4) Conclusions: Sulcatone and beta-caryophyllene presented the best log p values, 6.45 and 5.20, respectively. These lead phytocompounds can be used in their purest as repellent supplement or as a natural anti-mosquito agent in product formulations.