Abstract
The head louse problem increases at all levels of the international societies due to activities or life conditions that lead to often hair contacts among people. Lice occur exclusively on humans. Thus, they avoid dropping down from a head and therefore accept even a bad smelling hair of new a host. Due to this behaviour, there are only a few products on the markets which dare to claim a repellency activity that protects humans from infestation with head lice. The present study shows that a combination of an extract of the seeds of the plant Vitex agnus castus (monk pepper) and the compound paramenthan-3,8-diol (which is also found in some plants, e.g. Eucalyptus) act synergistically and are able to protect human hair for at least 7 h from invasion of head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis). The recently developed product containing both compounds is named Licatack® Preventive Spray.
References
Abdel-Ghaffar F, Semmler M (2007) Efficacy of neem seed extract shampoo on head lice of naturally infected human in Egypt. Parasitol Res 100:329–332
Abdel-Ghaffar F, Semmler M, Al-Rasheid K, Mehlhorn H (2009) Comparative in-vitro study on the efficacy and safety of 13 anti-louse products. Parasitol Res (in press)
Abdel-Ghaffar F, Semmler M, Al-Rasheid K, Klimpel S, Mehlhorn H (2010) Efficacy of a grapefruit extract on head lice: a clinical trial. Parasitol Res (in press)
Amer A, Mehlhorn H (2006) Repellency effect of 41 essential oils against Aedes, Anopheles and Culex-mosquitoes. Parasitol Res 99:478–490
Burgess IF (2004) Human lice and their control. Annu Rev Entomol 49:475–481
Burgess IF (2009) Current treatments for pediculosis capitis. Curr Opin Infect Dis 22:131–136
Heukelbach J, Speare R, Canyon D (2006a) Natural products and their application to the control of head lice: an evidence-based review. In: Brahmachari G (ed) Chemistry of natural products: recent trends and developments. Kerala, India, pp 1–26
Heukelbach J, Oliveira FA, Speare R (2006b) A new shampoo based on neem (Azadirachta indica) is highly effective against head lice in-vitro. Parasitol Res 99:353–356
Mehlhorn H, Eichenlaub D, Löscher T, Peters W (1995) Diagnosis and therapy of human parasites, 2nd edn. G. Fischer, Stuttgart
Mehlhorn H, Schmahl G, Schmidt J (2005) Extract of seeds of the plant Vitex agnus castus proven to be highly efficacious as a repellent against ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and biting flies. Parasitol Res 95:363–365
Mehlhorn H, Schmahl G, Schmidt J (2006) Repellenz von Zecken durch Duftstoffe des Mönchspfeffer. J Chemotherapy 15:175–178
Mehlhorn H (ed) (2008) Encyclopedia of parasitology. Springer, New York
Mehlhorn B, Mehlhorn H (2009) Louse alarm. Düsseldorf University Press, Düsseldorf
Mumcuoglu Y, Rufli T (1983) Dermatologische Entomologie. Perimed, Erlangen
Mumcuoglu K, Gilead L, Ingber A (2009) New insights in pediculosis and scabies. Expert Review Dermatol 4:285–302
Robinson D, Leo N, Provic P, Barkers (2003) Potential role of Pediculus humanus capitis as vector of Rickettsia prowazekii. Parasitol Res 90:2009–211
Sasaki T, Poudel S, Isawa H, Hayashi T, Sekia N, Tomita T, Sawabe K, Kobayashi M (2006) First molecular evidence of Bartonella quintana in Pediculus humanus capitis (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae), collected from Nepalese children. J Med Entomol 43:110–112
Semmler M, Abdel-Ghaffar F (2007) Efficacy of neem seed extract shampoo on sarcoptic mites. Parasitol Res 97:385–388
Toloza A, Lucia A, Zerba E, Masah H, Picollo MI (2010) Eucalyptus essential oil toxicity against permethrin resistant Pediculus humanus capitis. Parasitol Res (in press)
Acknowledgement
This study was in part supported by the Centre of Excellence of the College of Science of the King Saud University at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We thank the mothers of the 20 kids for their kind help during the tests in Cairo.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Semmler, M., Abdel-Ghaffar, F., Al-Rasheid, K. et al. Repellency against head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis). Parasitol Res 106, 729–731 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1698-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1698-0