Efficacy and Safety of Essential Oils in The Control of Mosquito: A Review of Research Findings

For millennia, people have utilized essential oil-rich plants to control mosquitoes and other hematophagous insects. A review of the literature found that terpenoids and "sesquiterpenoid-rich oils" were effective in mosquito control. Due to the benign impression and successful prevention of mosquito bites, there has been a recent surge in the acceptance of biobased agents as mosquito control solutions, in conjunction with the worldwide demand to take action to battle climate change and its consequences. Materials for this review, which included works published for the last decade and even earlier, were sourced from the research databases Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, ERIC, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and JSTOR using the keywords "essential oils," "larvicidal activity," "oviposition deterrent," "repellents," "toxicity," "safety," and "efficacy." " Recent research has found that low and middle-income African populations prefer plant-based repellents over manufactured chemical repellents such as N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide and N, N-diethyl phenylacetamide. Although ethnobotanical studies have demonstrated that biobased repellents are effective, environmentally friendly, and have almost no biohazard impact, they are also a source of bioactive substances for the creation of novel mosquito repellent products. The World Health Organization and other relevant agencies have yet to certify and accept the bulk of these plants with potential viability. Furthermore, there is a very limited comparison list of the efficiency and safety of these plant-based repellents. As a result, there is a need to further investigate these bio-based natural repellents and their formulations for successful mosquito control, allowing for the production of novel repellents that deliver high repellence while also ensuring consumer safety.