• P. DHOTTAMMA
• J. EBANASAR
• KAYALVIZHI.R

Terrestrial leeches are common in the rural areas at higher elevations of moist deciduous forests and joining plantations and it causes discomfort to people and livestock. The present study was carried out to determine the leech repellent activities of some locally available plant species on the land leech Haemadipsa sylvestris. A total of five medicinal plants were used as leech repellents. Aqueous extracts of Artemisia vulgaris(Burm f), Crassocephalum crepidioides (Benth S. Moore), Acalypha indicia L., Sida cartifolia L., and Stachytarpheta cayennensis(Rich Vahl) were prepared and tested on the terrestrial leech. The experiment was designed to assess the effect of three concentrations of aqueous extract viz., 1%, 3% and 5% for each concentration ten leeches were used. The following indices of repellency activity viz., repellency (%), effective period of plant extracts and Effectiveness repellency concentration (ECR) ECR-50, ECR-75 and ECR-100 in 3hours and 6hours interval. The aqueous extract of A. vulgaris showed high repellency of (81.43%) at 5% concentration after 3hrs of exposure and S. cartifolia showed least repellency of (27.43%) at 1% concentration after 6hours exposure. A. vulgaris has effective concentration of 50% repellency (ECR-50) 2.304% at 3 hours of interval and 100% repellency (ECR-100) is 5.813%. Repellency by A. vulgaris afforded for better protection for 3hours against the bites of H. sylvestris The study reveals that A. vulgaris is highly repellent as well as toxic to land leeches, and can be effectively used to prevent leech bites in the field areas.

Leech, Aqueous extract, Repellent, Medicinal plants, Haemadipsa sylvestris.

"Anti leech effect of selected plant extracts on Indian leech, Haemadipsa sylvestris (Blanchard:1894)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 12, page no.a446-a452, December-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2112050.pdf

"Anti leech effect of selected plant extracts on Indian leech, Haemadipsa sylvestris (Blanchard:1894)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 12, page no. ppa446-a452, December-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2112050.pdf