Chemical Composition and In Vitro Evaluation of the Mosquito (Anopheles) Repellent Property of Neem (Azadirachta indica) Seed Oil

What is it about?

As one of the killer diseases in the world, malaria contributes to child mortality and global death annually. As a result, many reactive mechanisms have evolved to control and repel mosquitoes. The use of synthetic mosquito repellents with N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) is one of the popular interventions despite its dermatological limitations such as skin irritations. Ethnobotanical reviews have identified that the adoption of natural repellents promises high repellence on mosquitoes with minimal side effects compared with synthetic ones. However, this has received little attention in modern pharmaceutical literature. This research is focused on the formulation of a natural mosquito repellent from the oil extracted from Azadirachta indica (A. Juss)

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Synthetic mosquito repellents have dermatological limitations such as skin irritations, it is therefore imperative to find alternatives which have minimal side effects. Neem seed oil was considered for this research. It promises to have high repellence against mosquitoes with minimal side effects.