Mosquito repellent eucalyptus and rosemary essential oil finishes for cotton fabric

Abstract

The present paper furnishes the mosquito repellency of microencapsulated textile finishes developed using two essential oils- eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) for cotton fabric. The microencapsulated finishes were prepared taking 10 percent concentration of each essential oil as the effect of the application at this concentration on the physical properties of the fabric was less and in permissible limits. The prepared finishes were applied on the fabric through pad-dry-cure method. The effect of microencapsulated finishes on the selected textile properties such GSM, fabric thickness, tensile strength, bending length and wash fastness was studied. The results showed that GSM, fabric thickness and bending length slightly increased after the application of microencapsulated finishes, whereas the tensile strength somewhat decreased. A cage test was conducted for testing the efficacy of the developed microencapsulated finishes against Aedes, Anopheles and Culex mosquito species. It was found that the eucalyptus oil microencapsulated finish provided 100 percent protection from Aedes mosquitoes even after 15 washings, whereas the protection from Anopheles and Culex species was less which further got reduced after successive washings. On the other hand, rosemary essential oil showed lesser protection, between 40-49 percent for all three mosquito species. The efficacy of the finish also decreased after repeated washings. Hence, eucalyptus oil was found to be more effective as compared to rosemary essential oil in repelling the mosquitoes.