Application of Sustainable Natural Resources in Agriculture: Acaricidal and Enzyme Inhibitory Activities of Naphthoquinones and Their Analogs against Psoroptes cuniculi.

As important secondary plant metabolites, naphthoquinones exhibit a wide range of biological activities. However, their potential as sustainable alternatives to synthetic acaricides has not been studied. This study for the first time investigates the acaricidal activity of naphthoquinones against Psoroptes cuniculi in vitro. Furthermore, the in vivo activity, the skin irritation effects, the cytotoxicity and the inhibitory activities against mite acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) of the two compounds that displayed the best insecticidal activity in vitro were evaluated. Among fourteen naphthoquinones and their analogs, juglone and plumbagin were observed to possess the strongest acaricidal activities against P. cuniculi with LC