Limited efficacy of plant essential oil in mosquito repellent experts: the most natural or screen mosquito net

When the plum rain season comes, mosquitoes will breed In this year's market, there are more and more mosquito repellent products focusing on "pure nature" Some mosquito repellent bracelets, mosquito repellent stickers and mosquito repellent water that claim to be "chemical free" are hot sold in drugstores and mother and infant stores, with the selling point of "suitable for infants and young children" But the reporter yesterday interviewed experts to learn that the effect of using plants and other "pure natural" mosquito repellents is limited, "if you can really let mosquitoes retreat, maybe smoke to yourself first." Reporters yesterday in a cosmetics store on the container saw that a total of nearly 10 mosquito repellent products, only one marked with chemical ingredients "DEET", the rest are "natural products." They include bracelets, mosquito repellent stickers that can be attached to clothing, and liquid mosquito repellent water According to the packaging instructions, the effective ingredients of this kind of products are various aromatic plant essential oils, including citronella, lavender, lemon leaf, eucalyptus leaf, etc The efficacy of different products is not the same Some hand rings are called "long-term mosquito repellent, reusable" Some stickers are labeled with "effective radius of 50 cm, effective play for 24 hours, maintain for 72 hours" Even through the packaging, some products can be smelled with special fragrance Tian Qi, a plant expert at Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, said the products mainly use the smell of aromatic plants to repel mosquitoes However, from the perspective of effect, small bracelets or stickers may not have obvious effect: "planting a large area of this kind of plants intensively may cause the mosquito to be deterred by the smell emitted; however, the smell emitted by mosquito repellent products may not reach the concentration of mosquito repellent." So, the smell of plant essential oil is bigger than that of natural plants, will the mosquito repellent effect be better? "At present, there is no scientific basis for this," Tian Qi said He believes that the high concentration and strong smell of essential oil can indeed make mosquitoes retreat; however, the high concentration of essential oil can also cause harm to users themselves: "for example, fumigating rose essential oil in the room can make people feel pleasant, but the high concentration will make people sick and damage human health." As for those mosquito repellent products containing chemical ingredients, they are not necessarily unsafe Mr Zhou, MD, told reporters that, in terms of risk, chemistry and "pure nature" have their own disadvantages "The greatest risk of chemical mosquito repellent products to young children is ingestion by mistake, but 'natural products' may also cause skin allergies due to materials and concentrations," Zhou explained In his opinion, the most natural method of mosquito repellent is physical mosquito repellent, including the installation of screen doors and windows, the use of mosquito nets when sleeping, etc.; at the same time, we should also pay attention to the removal of water at the bottom of home drinking fountains, flower pots, etc., to avoid breeding mosquito larvae.