CONSTITUENTS AND ANTIBACTERIAL ABILITY OF WATER BUG (Lethocerus indicus Lep.) ESSENTIAL OILS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18173/2354-1059.2025-0028Keywords:
antibacterial ability, constituents, essential oil, water bugAbstract
The water bug, Lethocerus indicus Lep., is an aquatic insect commonly found in deep rice fields, lakes, ponds, and rivers in Vietnam. In this study, male specimens were collected from fields, ditches, ponds, and lakes in Dai Cuong commune, Ung Hoa district, Hanoi, Vietnam. The objective of this study is to determine the constituents and antibacterial properties of the essential oil extracted from L. indicus. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis identified fifteen major components, primarily hydrocarbons and oxygenated hydrocarbons. In which, specifically, the essential oil comprised 12.41% monoterpenes, 25.12% sesquiterpenes, 21.98% alcohols, 1.79% aldehydes, and 36.63% esters. In particular, (E)-2-hexenol-acetate was the predominant component, accounting for 36.63%, and is believed to contribute to the characteristic aroma of the essential oil. The antibacterial activity of the essential oil was evaluated against six microorganisms: Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter jejuni, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
References
[1] Rathinavel T, Ammashi S & Muthusamy G, (2018). Screening of anti-inflammatory phytocompounds from Crateva adansonii leaf extracts and their validation by in silico modeling. Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, 16(2), 711–719.
[2] Kiatbenjakul P, Intarapichet KO & Cadwallader KR, (2015). Characterization of potent odorants in male giant water bug (Lethocerus indicus Lep. et serv.), an important edible insect of Southeast Asia. Food Chemistry, 168(1), 639–647.
[3] Robert WP, (1988). The use of the Thai Giant water bug (Lethocerus indicus) Hemiptera Stomatidae, as human food in California. Panpacific Entomologist, 64(1), 81–82.
[4] Das JK, (2021). Nutritional composition of Lethocerus indicus (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae), an aquatic edible insect in Assam, India. High Technology Letters, 27(11), 762–770.
[5] Mutum RD, Sabeela BU, Axel B, Vishakha R & Yallappa R, (2023). Nutritional properties of giant water bug, Lethocerus indicus a traditional edible insect species of North-East India. Bioengineered, 14(1), 457–468.
[6] Vu QM & Le TBL, (2012). Morphological sexual characteristics of the giant water bug Lethocerus indicus (Lepeletier et Serville, 1825) and their habitats in Vietnam. Academia Journal of Biology, 34(2), 166–172.
[7] Andreu AW, Max R, Eivind EAU & Glenn FK, (2018). Harvesting venom toxins from assassin bugs and other heteropteran insects. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 134, 1–6.
[8] Satyal P, Craft JD, Dosoky NS & Setzer WN, (2017). The chemical compositions of the volatile oils of garlic (Allium sativum) and wild garlic (Allium vineale). Journal of Foods, 63(6), 1–10.
[9] Nguyen VL & Pham TB, (2022). Study on the components and biological properties of the essential oil of Amomum aromaticum Roxb. in Ha Giang, Vietnam. Food Research, 6(5), 390–393.
[10] Cui Q, Wang LT, Liu JZ, Wang HM, Guo N, Gu CB & Fu YJ, (2017). Rapid extraction of Amomum tsao-kho essential oil and determination of its chemical composition, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activities. Journal of Chromatography B, 1061–1062.
[11] Perez C, Pauli M & Bazevque P, (1990). An antibiotic assay by the agar well diffusion method. Acta Biologiae et Medicina Experimentalis, 15, 113–115.
[12] Ramesh D, Joji A, Vijayakumar BG, Sethumadhavan A & Mani M, (2020). Indole chalcones: Design, synthesis, in vitro and in silico evaluation against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 198, 1–15.
[13] Qin R, You FM, Zhao Q, Xie X, Peng C, Zhan G & Han B, (2022). Naturally derived indole alkaloids targeting regulated cell death (RCD) for cancer therapy: From molecular mechanisms to potential therapeutic targets. Journal of Hematology and Oncology, 15(1), 1–6.
