Journal article
African and Australian Insect Repellents for Malaria Prophylaxis
JSM Chemistry, Vol.1(2)
2014
Abstract
Travelers to regions with Anopheles mosquitos infected with Plasmodium parasites need to prevent themselves contracting Malaria. There is no Malaria vaccine and chemoprophylaxis regimes are not 100 % protective against the disease, thus other Malaria prophylaxis measures must be implemented, including bite avoidance by applying insect repellent to exposed skin. The concentrations of active ingredients in insect repellents from Africa and Australia are investigated in this study. Hydrodistillation extracted the botanic ingredients from the African insect repellents and GC-MS analysis of these extracts revealed that both Botswana and Zimbabwe insect repellents contain citronella oil. The citronella oil concentration was between 40 % - 50 % in the African insect repellents. Repeated separatory funnel extractions recovered the DEET from Australian insect repellents. GC-MS analysis of these extracts determined that Repel Tropical Strength insect repellents contained 22 % DEET and Bushman Ultra Aerosol insect repellents contained 35 % DEET. There are no safety regulations for insect repellents in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus the effectiveness of insect repellents investigated in this study is compared with the minimum requirements for insect repellent retail in another Malaria endemic tourist destination, Thailand. Neither African insect repellents met the minimum requirements for insect repellent retail in Thailand. Conversely, both Australian insect repellents met the minimum requirements for insect repellent retail in Thailand. Only the Bushman Ultra Aerosol insect repellents met the more stringent insect repellent recommendations of Australian travel doctors for patients travelling to Malaria endemic countries.
Details
- Title
- African and Australian Insect Repellents for Malaria Prophylaxis
- Authors
- Sarah Windsor (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringAmanda Neilen (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
- Publication details
- JSM Chemistry, Vol.1(2)
- Publisher
- JSciMed Central
- Date published
- 2014
- ISSN
- 2334-1831
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2014 Windsor et al. Reproduced here with permission. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Education and Tertiary Access; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99447781702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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