Chemical Composition of Croton and Citronella and Repellent Action About Aedes Aegypti Linn.

Abstract

Agroecological products have been demanded by the population due to their low environmental impact. In view of the demand for natural repelent, objective was to characterize the chemical composition of the essential oils of croton and citronella valuate their spatial repellency activities against dengue mosquitoes. The essential oils were hydrodistilled, submitted to gas chromatography and to the repellency test with concentrations of 1, 2, 4 and 10%. DEET was incorporated into the emulsion in the same concentrations as a positive control and the pure non-ionic emulsion as a negative control. The repellency tests were obtained from 20 adult females exposed for 10 min in a cylindrical chambers and glass slides containing the samples. The essential oils of croton showed a yield of 0.37% with 20 compounds. The citronella oil yielded 1.07% with 27 compounds. The best dose of repellency response was 2% for both. Croton showed a repellency rate of 57% and citronella presented one higher than 70%. It is concluded that these species have a repellent action against the dengue mosquitoes.