Utilization of electrocoagulation for the isolation of alkaloids from the aerial parts of Stemona aphylla and their mosquitocidal activities against Aedes aegypti

The electrocoagulation (EC) technique is an alternative method of isolating natural products with the advantage of minimizing the amounts of organic solvents required for this process, which are often harmful to the environment. In this research, the EC and the conventional solvent extraction methods were used in the isolation of Stemona alkaloids from the aerial parts of Stemona aphylla. A comparison was made between the amounts of the isolated alkaloids and the solvents used. The isolated alkaloids were evaluated for their larvicidal, ovicidal and oviposition-deterrent activities against the dengue vector, Aedes aegypti. The morphology and histopatology of the alkaloid treated larvae were also investigated. Two Stemona alkaloids, (2′S)-hydroxystemofoline and stemofoline, were isolated from both the EC and the conventional method. The amounts of (2′S)-hydroxystemofoline from the EC method was about the same as that obtained from the conventional method. However, the amounts of stemofoline obtained from the EC method were about two times larger than those obtained from the conventional method. Importantly, the EC method required six times less total organic solvents. The larvicidal activity assays of (2′S)-hydroxystemofoline and stemofoline showed that these were highly effective against Aedes aegypti larvae with LC50 values of 3.91 μg/ml and 4.35 μg/ml, respectively. Whereas, the crude EC extract (LC50 = 11.86 μg/ml) showed greater larvicidal activity than the crude extract obtained from the conventional extraction method (LC50 = 53.40 μg/ml). The morphological observations of the (2′S)-hydroxystemofoline and the stemofoline treated larvae revealed that the anal gills were the sites of aberrations. A histopathological study showed that larvae treated with these alkaloids had cytopathological alterations to the epithelial cells of the midgut. At a concentration 40 μg/ml (2′S)-hydroxystemofoline showed 100% ovicidal activity on 24 h old eggs while stemofoline showed 97.2%. Furthermore, the oviposition-deterrent effects of (2′S)-hydroxystemofoline and stemofoline, at a concentration of 80 μg/ml were 99.5% and 97.2%, respectively