Microencapsulated citronella oil for mosquito repellent finishing of cotton textiles

Abstract

Microcapsules containing citronella essential oil were prepared by complex coacervation and applied to cotton textiles in order to study the repellent efficacy of the obtained fabrics. Citronella released from treated textiles was indirectly monitored by the extractable content of its main components. Repellent activity was assessed by exposure of a human hand and arm covered with the treated textiles to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Fabrics treated with microencapsulated citronella presented a higher and longer lasting protection from insects compared to fabrics sprayed with an ethanol solution of the essential oil, assuring a repellent effect higher than 90% for three weeks. Complex coacervation is a simple, low cost, scalable and reproducible method of obtaining encapsulated essential oils for textile application. Repellent textiles were achieved by padding cotton fabrics with microcapsules slurries using a conventional pad-dry method. This methodology requires no additional investment for textile finishing industries, which is a desirable factor in developing countries.

Methods of imparting mosquito repellent agents and the assessing mosquito repellency on textile

“…The plant essential oils were microencapsulated to prevent the easily evaporation process before the impart to fabric by pad dry cure method or addition to rinse cycle. Study by Specos stated that textile treated with microencapsulated citronella performed the higher and and longer lasting protection against mosquitoes compared to sprayed fabric with ethanol solution of essential oil (Specos et al 2010).…”

“…Vigneshkumar and Specos et al reported the use of scoured and bleached cotton knitted fabric in a study determining the "Repellence effect of microencapsulated citrinellea oil on tretated textile fabrics against A. aegypti mosquitoes" and "Microencapsulated citronella oil for mosquito repellent finishing of cotton textiles" (Specos et al 2010;Vigneshkumar and Vijaykumar Vediappan 2012). Other study by Maheshwari et al (Maheshwari and Ramya 2014) utilized the same textile materials of cotton fabric which made from rib knitted and experiencing the scouring, bleaching and dyeing process in a study to determine eco friendly mosquito repellent fabric finished with natural plant.…”

Aromatherapeutic Textiles

“…Final product destination/effect References Peppermint Sedative, stimulatory, antiviral, and antibacterial properties [24] Citronella Mosquito repellent [25] Thyme Ocimum sanctum L.…”

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“…The methods of simple coacervation and complex coacervation are widely used in traditional microencapsulation processes 34,35 ; in addition, simple coacervation is mainly used for encapsulating watersoluble drugs and complex coacervation is appropriate for water-soluble drugs. Besides the above-mentioned methods, there are some other preparation methods such as spray drying 36 , also mainly used for large-scale production.…”