"Coconut oil compounds are more effective than insect repellents"

WASHINGTON: According to a study, compounds derived from coconut oil are more effective than DEET in preventing disease transmission and discomfort related to insect bites.

For more than 60 years, DEET has been considered the gold standard for insect repellents – the most effective and the most durable available on the market, say researchers from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

However, growing regulation and growing public health concerns regarding synthetic repellents and insecticides such as DEET have generated interest in developing more effective and sustainable herbal repellents. declared.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, identified coconut oil-specific fatty acids that have a strong repulsion and lasting efficacy against multiple insects – mosquitoes, ticks, biting flies and bed bugs – that can transmit diseases to humans and animals.

A team of scientists led by Junwei Zhu discovered that coconut oil compounds were effective against biting flies and bed bugs for two weeks and that they were sustainably resistant to ticks for at least a year. week during laboratory tests.

The compound showed a strong repulsion against mosquitoes when higher concentrations of coconut oil compounds were applied topically.

Some people refuse to use DEET and turn to folk remedies or herbal repellents. The most currently available herbal repellents only work for a short time, Zhu noted.

The mixture of free fatty acids derived from coconut oil (lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, as well as their corresponding methyl esters) offers a strong repulsion against blood-sucking insects.

By encapsulating coconut fatty acids in a starch-based formula, field tests have shown that this all-natural formula could protect cattle from stable flies for 96 hours or four days, the researchers said. researchers.

DEET is only 50% effective against stable flies, while the coconut oil-based compound is over 95% effective, they said.

Against bed bugs and ticks, DEET lost its effectiveness after about three days, while the coconut oil-based compound lasted about two weeks. the study found.

Fatty acids from coconut oil also provided more than 90% mosquito repellency – including Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that can transmit Zika virus, according to Zhu.

These compounds derived from coconut oil provide more durable protection than any other known natural repellent against the insect blood supply, Zhu said.