NONI LEAVES - POTENTIALLY USEFUL IN CONTROLLING MOSQUITO (AEDES AEGYPTI) CARRIER OF ZIKA VIRUS

THE NONI PLANT

BRIEF BACKGROUND Zika viruses are carried (vector) by the mosquitoes known as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Since there is NO cure for this viral infection yet, I believe that we need to expand our understanding of what can be done to help those who suffer from Zika viral infection. One way to to this is by looking into the effects of medicinal plants which have been used for thousands of years in traditional healing. One of the plants comes to mind is the NONI (Morinda citrifolia L., Family: Rubiaceae) plant, particularly, the noni leaves. As an advanced scientific noni researcher who have been using noni for over five decades and have been studying noni, scientifically, for over 13 years, I had found some interesting effects of noni on one of the molecular pathways that the Zika virus seems to hijack or employ in its arsenal. MOLECULAR PATHWAY One way is the hijacking of the NFkappaB, immune master switch, if you will. Zika virus increases the expression or the activity of the master switch which leads to its viral implications. HOPE FOR THE FUTURE If a pharmaceutical drug or a medicinal plant have the compound(s) that will return the increased (over-expression) activity of this "switch" back to normal then it will help in controlling the effects of the Zika virus. SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY & IMPLICATION Interestingly, noni leaves have been shown in a research study using a methanol extract of the noni leaves that was set up to evaluate the larvicidal and pupicidal activity. The authors concluded that noni leaf methanol extract: "...are promising as good larvicidal and pupicidal activity against Aedes aegypti. So, if we run out of chemicals to control the mosquito larvae, perhaps we can make the noni leaf extracts and kill the mosquito where they reproduce with the "...eco'friendly approach..." that the authors found. SOURCE Kovendan et al. Evaluation of larvicidal and pupicidal activity of Morinda citrifolia L.(Noni) (Family: Rubiaceae) against three mosquito vectorsAsian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease (2012)S362-S369. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2222180812601820). IMPORTANT LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION http://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/resources/vector-control.html http://www.cdc.gov/zika/prevention/ http://www.cdc.gov/zika/fs-posters/ http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6505e1.htm http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/