Chemical composition and larvicidal activity of the essential oil of Pimenta dioica leaves

In this study, we investigated the main constituent, the predominant class and biological activity of the essential oil extracted from the leaves of Pimenta dioica and the pattern of the major constituent against larvae in the third stage of Aedes aegypti. For this reason, we extracted the oil by hydrodistillation, identified its components by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and calculated the lethal concentration (LC50) of the larvicidal activity using the Reed-Muench method. The results show that the oil consists mainly of eugenol, in which the phenylpropanoid class predominated and the lethal concentration, LC50, was 38.86 mu g mL(-1) at a confidence level of 2.25 mu g mL(-1), while the eugenol standard presented LC50 79.75 mu g mL(-1) at a confidence level of 2.10 mu g mL(-1). Given the facts, we conclude that the oil is more active than the standard and that it has the potential to replace chemical larvicides.