Evaluation of the mosquito repellent action of cuban oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus) essential oil
Abstract
This project was mainly on the evaluation of the repellency of Cuban Oregano
(Plectranthus amboinicus) essential oil against the mosquitoes. A chamber designed by
using AutoCAD software was used to evaluate the repellent ratio of the mosquitoes. The
material used to fabricate the chamber was acrylic plastic. The chamber was divided into
three sections, which were treated chamber, untreated chamber and released chamber. The
Cuban Oregano essential oil was extracted by the soxhlet extraction method using three
different solvents, that were hexane (first stage), chloroform (second stage) and methanol
(third stage). The repellent ratios of each stage of extracted essential oils were evaluated by
the number of distribution of mosquitoes in the treated and untreated chamber. Total
phenolic in the essential oil was measured by UV-vis spectrometry. Second stage extraction
of Cuban Oregano essential oil using chloroform resulted the highest repellent ratio when
evaluated with twenty mosquitoes in the chamber and compared with hexane and methanol
extraction. This essential oil also contained the highest total phenolic content and can be
considered the most effective essential oil to repel mosquitoes.