A new type of insect repellent will make its way to shelves for drugstores – and it smells like grapefruit.
On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had approved a new ingredient called nut cotton, which kills and kills mosquitoes and falcons. The naturally occurring ingredient – which is responsible for the characteristic odor of grapefruit – was discovered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and developed into an insecticide. It is also found in Alaska yellow cedar trees and is widely used in the cosmetic industry to make perfumes and colognes.
In registering the new ingredient, the EPA recognizes that it is safe and effective, and formally giving the green light to companies to use nut cotton to develop new products for humans and pets.
“Studies show that when products are formulated from the new ingredient, nut cotton, it can repel and kill ticks, mosquitoes, and a wide variety of other biting pests,” the EPA said in a statement. Diseases transmitted by these insects include Lyme disease, malaria and the Zika virus.
The CDC worked with Evolva, a biotech company, to develop and research the ingredient.
Studies have shown that nut cotton can work just as well as other insect repellents, such as DEET. The protection against insect bites is expected to last several hours with nut cotton, the EPA noted.
The introduction of a new chemical – the first since 2009 – could also help combat resistance to many common insecticides that are seen by insects today. (If insects develop resistance to an ingredient, the product is less effective.)
Mosquito and disease-transmitted diseases are a growing threat in the US; According to the CDC, the number of cases of tick-borne disease doubled from 2004 to 2016.
“I think it’s a major contribution to our arsenal of defectors,” said Drs. Brian Fallon, director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University in New York City, of notebook.
Companies interested in developing products with nut cotton will be able to submit them for review by the EPA, and products could be available to consumers by 2022.
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