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Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs

Head lice infestation is an emerging social problem in undeveloped and developed countries. Because of louse resistance increasing, several long-used insecticidal compounds have lost their efficacy, and alternatives, such as essential oils, have been proposed to treat this parasitic infestation. The...

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Autores principales: Di Campli, Emanuela, Di Bartolomeo, Soraya, Delli Pizzi, Patricia, Di Giulio, Mara, Grande, Rossella, Nostro, Antonia, Cellini, Luigina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22847279
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3045-0
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author Di Campli, Emanuela
Di Bartolomeo, Soraya
Delli Pizzi, Patricia
Di Giulio, Mara
Grande, Rossella
Nostro, Antonia
Cellini, Luigina
author_facet Di Campli, Emanuela
Di Bartolomeo, Soraya
Delli Pizzi, Patricia
Di Giulio, Mara
Grande, Rossella
Nostro, Antonia
Cellini, Luigina
author_sort Di Campli, Emanuela
collection PubMed
description Head lice infestation is an emerging social problem in undeveloped and developed countries. Because of louse resistance increasing, several long-used insecticidal compounds have lost their efficacy, and alternatives, such as essential oils, have been proposed to treat this parasitic infestation. The present study investigated the efficacy of two natural substances: tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) oil and nerolidol (3,7,11-trimethyl-1,6,10-dodecatrien-3-ol) against lice and its eggs. Products were used alone and in combination (ratio 1:1 and 1:2) from 8 % dilution. The in vitro effect of natural substances at different concentrations were evaluated against 69 head lice (adults and nymphs) and 187 louse eggs collected from school children in Chieti–Pescara (Central Italy) over a 6-month period. The lice mortality was evaluated for 24 h by a stereo light microscope. The ovicidal activity was monitored by microscopic inspections for 15 days. Tea tree oil was more effective than nerolidol against head lice with 100 % mortality at 30 min and 1 % concentration. On the contrary, nerolidol expressed a more pronounced ovicidal activity inducing the failure of 50 % of the eggs to hatch at 1 % concentration after 4 days; the same effect was achieved by using a twice concentration of tea tree oil. The association of the two substances both in ratios 1:1 and 1:2 combined efficaciously their insecticidal and ovicidal effect; in particular, the ratio 1:2 (tea tree oil 0.5 % plus nerolidol 1 %) acted producing both the death of all head lice at 30 min and the abortive effect of louse eggs after 5 days. These results offer new potential application of natural compounds and display a promising scenario in the treatment of pediculosis resistant cases. The development of novel pediculicides containing essential oils could be, in fact, an important tool to control the parasitic infestation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00436-012-3045-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-34805842012-11-01 Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs Di Campli, Emanuela Di Bartolomeo, Soraya Delli Pizzi, Patricia Di Giulio, Mara Grande, Rossella Nostro, Antonia Cellini, Luigina Parasitol Res Original Paper Head lice infestation is an emerging social problem in undeveloped and developed countries. Because of louse resistance increasing, several long-used insecticidal compounds have lost their efficacy, and alternatives, such as essential oils, have been proposed to treat this parasitic infestation. The present study investigated the efficacy of two natural substances: tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) oil and nerolidol (3,7,11-trimethyl-1,6,10-dodecatrien-3-ol) against lice and its eggs. Products were used alone and in combination (ratio 1:1 and 1:2) from 8 % dilution. The in vitro effect of natural substances at different concentrations were evaluated against 69 head lice (adults and nymphs) and 187 louse eggs collected from school children in Chieti–Pescara (Central Italy) over a 6-month period. The lice mortality was evaluated for 24 h by a stereo light microscope. The ovicidal activity was monitored by microscopic inspections for 15 days. Tea tree oil was more effective than nerolidol against head lice with 100 % mortality at 30 min and 1 % concentration. On the contrary, nerolidol expressed a more pronounced ovicidal activity inducing the failure of 50 % of the eggs to hatch at 1 % concentration after 4 days; the same effect was achieved by using a twice concentration of tea tree oil. The association of the two substances both in ratios 1:1 and 1:2 combined efficaciously their insecticidal and ovicidal effect; in particular, the ratio 1:2 (tea tree oil 0.5 % plus nerolidol 1 %) acted producing both the death of all head lice at 30 min and the abortive effect of louse eggs after 5 days. These results offer new potential application of natural compounds and display a promising scenario in the treatment of pediculosis resistant cases. The development of novel pediculicides containing essential oils could be, in fact, an important tool to control the parasitic infestation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00436-012-3045-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer-Verlag 2012-07-31 2012 /pmc/articles/PMC3480584/ /pubmed/22847279 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3045-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2012 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Di Campli, Emanuela
Di Bartolomeo, Soraya
Delli Pizzi, Patricia
Di Giulio, Mara
Grande, Rossella
Nostro, Antonia
Cellini, Luigina
Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
title Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
title_full Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
title_fullStr Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
title_full_unstemmed Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
title_short Activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against Pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
title_sort activity of tea tree oil and nerolidol alone or in combination against pediculus capitis (head lice) and its eggs
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22847279
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-012-3045-0
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