Cinnamon Beats DEET Against Mosquitoes
Saturday July 17, 2004
A study published in the July 14th issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports that the compounds in cinnamon oil are more potent in killing mosquitoes than DEET (usually used as a repellent, but also poisonous). The researchers tested eleven compounds found in cinnamon leaf oil for their capacity to kill the larvae of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries yellow fever. Four of the compounds had LC50 values (concentration required to kill 50% of the larvae within 24 hours) of less than 50 parts per million (ppm). Is is expected that the cinnamon oil will prove similarly lethal against larvae of other types of mosquitoes, providing a safe, natural, pleasant-smelling alternative to other pesticides. Read the American Chemical Society press release to learn more.
DEET Chemistry | Natural Mosquito Repellents
DEET Chemistry | Natural Mosquito Repellents
Comments
This summary is inaccurate and confused. The study did not suggest that DEET is used as a poison against larvae (the writer might be confusing DEET with DDT, a completely different substance that has been used for poisoning mosquito larvae). The authors examined how extracts from cinnamon killed mosquito larvae. They did not compare the cinnamon chemicals with DEET in their assays. The insecticides tested will not provide a “pleasant smelling” alternative to DEET because they are used in a totally different context!
Thank you Susan!! Though I have not done any research on this subject, I was wondering what “killing mosquito larvae” had to do with mosquito “repellent”.
While this may claim to help keep the mosquitos away…my son would be in hospital. He’s allergic to cinnamon. “Natural” isn’t always better.
This article says absolutely nothing about mosquito repelling, it just tells how to kill mosquito larvae. Why try to mislead the public??
you suck