Larvas

Journal of Ethnopharmacology 111 (2007) 227–231

Antibacterial activity and in vitro anti-tumor activity of the extract of the
larvae of the housefly (Musca domestica)
Lixia Hou, Yonghui Shi, Pei Zhai, Guowei Le ∗
Key Laboratory of Food Science and Safety, Ministry of Education, School of Food Science and Technology,
Southern Yangtze University, Wuxi 214036, PR China
Received 16 December2005; received in revised form 30 October 2006; accepted 18 November 2006
Available online 28 November 2006

Abstract
One of the significant characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine is the use of insects, other terrestrial arthropods and their products as
drugs. In the present work, the extract of housefly (Musca domestica) larvae was studied by an agar well diffusion assay and minimumbactericidal
concentration (MBC) determination for detection of antimicrobial activity and by MTT assay method to test its in vitro anti-tumor activity. In our
studies, the extract inhibited six tested bacterial pathogens and Escherichia coli Jm109, a gene-modified strain resistant to ampicillin with the MBCs
ranging from 200 to 1600 g/ml, while Gram-positive bacteria were more sensitive thanGram-negative bacteria. The extract showed high in vitro
anti-tumor activity against human colon cancer cell line CT26 with the IRs ranging from 62 to 89%. The extract of housefly larvae inoculated with
Shigella dysenteriae 51302 exhibited higher antibacterial activity and in vitro anti-tumor activity than that of native larvae, which may indicate the
same principle involved in the use of Bombyx morilarvae infected with silk moth fungus Beauveria bassiana and Hepialis larvae infected with
Cordiceps fungus in the traditional Chinese medicine. Both extracts did not show any coagulation activity and haemolysis activity against rabbit
erythrocytes at 500 and 1000 g/ml. The results support its use in the traditional Chinese medicine, and warrant the further identification of the
active moleculein the housefly larvae.
© 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Housefly (Musca domestica); Antibacterial activity; In vitro anti-tumor activity

1. Introduction
A lot of laboratory work on the bioactivity and use of
plants and their components in folk medicine has been reported
(Dobner et al., 2003; Rojas et al., 2003; Tadeg et al., 2005),
on the other hand, there arefew reports on the ethnopharmacological use of insects. Insects and arthropods “are a large,
unexplored and unexploited source of potentially useful compounds for modern medicine” (Pemberton, 1999). One of the
significant characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine is the
use of insects, other terrestrial arthropods and their products as
drugs (Jiang, 1999). The housefly (Musca domestica)belongs
to the Diptera. The housefly larvae have been used clinically to
cure malnutritional stagnation, decubital necrosis, osteomyelitis, ecthyma and lip boil since the Ming/Qing Danysty (1368
Anno Domini) up to now in China, and also used to treat coma
∗

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 510 85869236; fax: +86 510 85869236.
E-mail address: lgw@sytu.edu.cn (G. Le).

0378-8741/$ – see frontmatter © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jep.2006.11.015

and gastric cancer when combined with other drugs (Jiang,
1999).
Despite the popular use of the housefly larvae in traditional
Chinese medicine and the fact that they are commonly assumed
to be safe for medical use, to our knowledge, no laboratory
reports on its bioactivity are available. The aim of thepresent
study is to test the antimicrobial activity, in vitro anti-tumor
activity, and blood coagulation activity and haemolysis activity
of the extract of housefly larvae.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Preparation of the extract of the housefly larvae
The third instar larvae of the housefly (Musca domestica)
were obtained from the Wuxi Kunlong nursery, Wuxi, China.
The larvae were divided...