Posted on 07/19/2004 1:10:38 PM PDT by truthandlife
Cinnamon oil is an environmentally friendly way to kill mosquito hatchlings, a Taiwanese study shows.
It might even make bug repelling better smelling -- although whether cinnamon oil keeps adult mosquitoes from biting has yet to be tested.
The findings, from Sen-Sung Cheng, a natural products chemist at National Taiwan University, and colleagues, appear in the July 14 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Current mosquito-control efforts often rely on organophosphate insecticides. Use of these agents has raised health and environmental concerns, Cheng and colleagues note, so they looked for a different approach. They noted that cinnamon leaf oils have been shown to inhibit bacteria, termites, mites, mildew, and fungi.
Cheng's team derived various oils from the leaves of a type of cinnamon tree that grows in Taiwan. They tested the oils -- and their main ingredients -- against the larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This is one of the mosquito species spreading dengue fever -- a viral illness transmitted to humans by mosquitoes during the feeding process.
They found that one chemical in the oil, cinnamaldehyde, worked the best. At less than 50 parts per million, it killed half the mosquito larvae. That's better than DEET, currently the best-known mosquito repellent which is applied on the skin and repels insects rather than kills them.
"We think that cinnamon oil might also affect adult mosquitoes by acting as a repellent," Cheng says in a news release.
Cheng says his team plans to test this theory.
Cinnamon oil -- which has not been tested for use as bug repellent -- is sold in small bottles as an aromatherapy.
According to the National Toxicology program, cinnamaldehyde is used in foods, beverages, medical products, perfumes, cosmetics, soaps, detergents, creams, and lotions. It's also been used as an animal repellent, as an insect attractant, and as an antifungal agent. It may have toxic effects at high concentrations.
Anything is better than those new propane repellers - I bagged one skeeter in a week (yes it was on).
I have one too. I got it last summer and it is now in the attic.
Used motor oil also kills mosquito larvae - you just pour it on standing water: stagnant ponds, ditches, etc.
Ya, but it's hell on the brookies and browns.
Something called oleic acid does better, because it makes a film one molecule thick.
Orange oil is supposed to work, too.
ping
send me your email address and I'll send you a couple of pics of my wild bows I caught up in the mountains here in WA. Actually I just found out a few days ago they are calling them Montana Black Spotted trout. I never heard of them before but they look like bows on the sides, Goldens on the top and black spots are inbetween the two areas. The bottom of this lake is a golden sandy color so I think they just evolved to the sandy/golden back shade.
Motor oil makes a slick one molecule thick also.
Of course the adults just keep on laying more eggs, so unless you are a stockholder in Crisco, I'd let the mosquitos do what they do.
Watch the price of cinnamon oil go up.
I could probably make a mint selling the stuff in Alaska.
You'd get arrested big time in Wisconsin for that.
but doesn't break down and may be toxic, as most who put MO into a larva farm will just dump until it's gone.
This reporter knows the comparison is between apples and oranges, but makes it anyway. DEET is a repellent, while cinnamon is alleged to be a poison, and the story admits this, yet it also says the cinnamon is "better" than DEET at killing them. Dumbed-down reporting, even if the subject matter is interesting; you can buy "oil of cinnamon" in grocery stores, and if that's all it takes to kill mosquitoes, that's great.
Yeah, I understand-- but isn't petro oil what they used to control mosquitoes (and malaria) during the construction of the Panama canal?
Here's the logically developed conclusion: The reporter claims it's as " good as DEET." The Chinese guy says it hasn't been tested yet, and the National Toxicology center lists the key ingredient as an insect attractant. Where do they get these guys ?
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