Nature Insect Repellent

Learning from a NGO called Journey to Forever, the YEGs@Mayflower decided to explore the possibility of using local herbs and plants as insect repellent

The reasons are

a. It is sustainable: made entirely from locally available renewable resources

b. It is empowering: processed entirely by the end-user as needed

c. It is eco-friendly: won't boil the planet or blow a hole in the sky.


PandanThe first plant we explored was the Pandan leave.



Did you know that Pandan leave is an effective repellent?

Two researchers from NTU did a research using Pandan Leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.) as a natural cockroach repellent.

It was observed that taxi drivers in Singapore and Malaysia kept bunches of pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.) in their taxis to ward off cockroaches.

Many families (including the Esshold) also use Pandan leaves as a natural cockroach repellent. In addition, it also makes the kitchen smell nice and clean.


For those who are interested, you may go to this website to see the researcher's report.

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/eee/urop/congress2003/Proceedings/abstract/NUS_FoS/TDP%20USP/Li%20Jingmei.pdf


Lemon Grass



Lemon grass contains citronella oil, a safe and natural insect repellent that's just as effective as the commercial chemical products, especially when it's fresh.

You can rub the long, grassy leaves on the skin, but the stalk worked even better. Take one stalk of fresh lemon grass and peel off the outer leaves, snap off the grass blades behind the swollen stem at the base.

Bend the stem between your fingers, loosening it, then rub it vigorously between your palms so that it fractures into a kind of fibrous juicy mass, and rub this mess over all exposed skin, covering thoroughly at least once. Pleasant on the skin and the effect lasts about 4-5 hours.




According to the CRC Ethnobotany Desk Reference by Tim Johnson, lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) is traditionally used in various parts of the world as an antiseptic, antispasmodic, carminative, cyanogenetic, dentrifice, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, pectoral, preventative (cold), stimulant, sudorific, and tonic, used to treat common cold, consumption, cough, depurative, dyspepsia, elephantiasis, fever, flu, gingivitis, headache, hypertension, insecticide, leprosy, malaria, mouth sores, neuritis, pneumonia, pyorrhea, rheumatism, sprains, and toothache.

The Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Index at the Purdue Guide to Medicinal and Aromatic Plants has a lot of information on lemon grass, also listing it as an insect repellent and a medicinal plant, and says it's used in food and confections, in perfumes and cosmetics, soaps and creams, as a flavouring in soft drinks, and as a mask for industrial bad smells.



The information above is obtained from this blog:

http://journeytoforever.org/edu_homer.html






Turmeric
Turmeric (yellow powder or yellow ginger) can be found in most kitchen in Singapore.

Turmeric has been used for many conditions in traditional medicine in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Turmeric has been applied to insect stings and to alleviate itching.






There are many uses of turmeric and you can go to the website below to check out the information.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/turmeric-000277.htm



Garlic




Garlic, a common staple found in kitchens in Singapore, has been considered a special food.

Garlic has a natural sulfur which repels insects, including mosquitoes, ticks and fleas. Spraying garlic concentrates as a mosquito repellent is not something new. Farmers and master gardeners have been doing it for many generations.

According to some website, mosquitoes are soft-bodied insects so the garlic juice can be very toxic to them in increased concentrations.

The juice does not harm humans or pets or plants, but to mosquitoes it can be deadly.






The odor of it chases them out of the area and they stay away - for as long as they can detect the odor. While the odor of sprayed garlic juice becomes undetectable to humans within minutes, the mosquitoes will still detect it.




Mosquitoes have a very heightened olfactory sense - as high as 10,000 times better than humans. They can detect the garlic extract for much longer periods of time and will stay away from the sprayed area of garlic juice for up to a month and more.