Repellent activity of essential oil from Cymbopogon nardus and Vitex trifolia against Aedes aegypti

Essential oils are oils produced by plant tissue which are lipophilic and volatile at room temperature consisting of a mixture of various organic compounds with low molecular weight. Lemongrass (Cymbopogon nardus (L.) Rendle) and legundi (Vitex trifolia L.) produce essential oils that have repellent activity, namely the ability to resist mosquito bites.

                The purpose of this study was to obtain a formulation of anti-mosquito lotion that provides the highest protection using essential oils as a substitute for synthetic chemicals that are widely used in commercial lotions. Natural lotion is very urgent to prevent mosquito bites Aedes aegypti causes dengue fever.

               The method used is the formulation of mosquito repellent lotions with concentrations of essential oils of 0, 2, 3, 4, 5%. As a positive control used commercial mosquito repellent lotion. The effectiveness of the lotion was tested using an adult female Aedes aegypti mosquito which was put into a cage that was covered with a porous cloth. The lotion was smeared on the researcher’s left hand and then exposed to the mosquito cage. Observation of the number of mosquitoes that perched was counted for 6 hours, where each hour was counted for 5 minutes. The hand is not smeared with lotion used as a negative control. Each treatment was carried out 3 times.

The mandatory outputs targeted from this research are publications in international scientific journals. Additional output is the appropriate technology (TTG) about the technology for making mosquito repellent lotions. The level of technological readiness (TKT) of this study is level 4, namely the validation of technology in the laboratory.