A REVIEW OF PLANT-BASED INSECT REPELLENTS, THEIR APPLICATIONS ON TEXTILES AND REPELLENCY TEST METHODS

Abstract

There are many life-threatening insects in nature and the most dangerous ones are mosquitoes. People have taken herbal precautions against them since ancient times. Although several chemical and synthetic insect repellents exist in the market, the plant-based protection methods have never been given up such that there is a trend towards producing and commercializing plant-based insect repellents in recent years. In the light of ethnobotanical studies, new insect repellent plants and formulations are being explored, developed and tested. In literature, there are a lot of research on plant-based repellents some of which are reviewed in this article. Information about the most frequently used plant-based repellents and related studies are presented. Different application methods of the plant-based repellents on the textiles are explained with their a few examples in literature. Also, common test methods used for determining the effectiveness of insect repellents and repellent treated textiles are stated and the importance of the standardization of these test methods is emphasized. It is understood that usage of plant-based insect repellents in practice can be beneficial and useful if stayed within their safe concentration limits.