Tick and
Mosquito Repellent Can Be Made Commercially
from Pine Oil
By
Sharon Durham
June 23, 2008
A
naturally-occurring compound prepared from
pine oil that seems to deter mosquito biting
and repels two kinds of ticks has been found
by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientists.
A patent (US
7,378,557 B1) was issued on May 27 for the
compound, isolongifolenone, and partners are
being sought to bring this technology to
commercial production.
In laboratory
tests, ARS chemist
Aijun Zhang in the
Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior
Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., and his
colleagues discovered that the naturally
occurring compound deters the biting of
mosquitoes more effectively than the widely
used synthetic chemical repellent DEET. The
compound also repelled two kinds of ticks as
effectively as DEET.
Insect
repellents are used widely to prevent bites
from mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks and other
arthropods. For the most part, people apply
repellents just to avoid discomfort, but there
is a more serious side to the use of these
products. Human diseases caused by
blood-feeding ticks and mosquitoes represent a
serious threat to public health worldwide.
Malaria is the
chief threat, killing approximately two
million people per year and threatening
billions. Other diseases include dengue fever,
chikungunya, Lyme disease and typhus. Some
segments of the public perceive efficient
synthetic active ingredients as somehow more
dangerous than botanical compounds, giving
additional importance to the discovery of
plant-based isolongifolenone.
Zhang's team
also developed an easy and efficient method to
prepare this repellent. Many natural-product
chemicals isolated from plants and essential
oils have proven to have repellent effects.
Most often, such compounds never attain
commercial development and their use is
limited or impractical because they are
expensive and not available in pure and large
quantities.
In contrast,
this newly-discovered repellent can be
prepared inexpensively from pine oil feedstock
in ton quantities for large-scale commercial
applications, giving it a significant
advantage over many of the other
natural-product repellent chemicals.
.
