Enhanced repellency of binary mixtures of Calophyllum inophyllum nut oil fatty acids or their esters and three terpenoids to Stomoxys calcitrans.

BACKGROUND: An assessment was made of the repellency to female stable flies of tamanu nut oil fatty acids or their esters alone (each 0.5 mg cm(-2) ) or in combination with cuminyl alcohol, cuminaldehyde and α-phellandrene (each 0.25 mg cm(-2) ), using an exposed human hand bioassay. Results were compared with those of synthetic repellent DEET (0.25 mg cm(-2) ).

RESULTS: Based upon protection time (PT) (time to first bite of stable fly), oleic acid, linoleic acid, methyl oleate or methyl linoleate synergised the repellency of each monoterpenoid and DEET. For example, the binary mixture of oleic acid and cuminyl alcohol (PT 2.05 h) resulted in significantly greater repellency than either oleic acid (0.55 h), cuminyl alcohol (0.70 h) or DEET alone (1.50 h). The binary mixtures of oleic acid and cuminyl alcohol or DEET (PT 2.10 h) did not differ significantly in repellency. The structure-activity relationship indicates that the degree of saturation, the side chain length and the functional group of fatty acids appear to play a role in determining the fatty acid repellency to stable flies.

CONCLUSION: Mixtures formulated from fatty acid and monoterpenoid could be useful as potential repellents for protecting humans and possibly domestic animals from bites caused by stable fly.