Bos Taurus Bovine as an Organic Dual Purpose Incense Againts Aedes Aegypti

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Dengue virus (DENV) came from specific type of mosquito called Yellow Fever Mosquito (Aedes Aegypti). As the fastest spreading vector-borne disease in the world, it is one of the most common disease in tropical countries such as the Philippines. In fact, more than 10,000 cases of dengue in the first six weeks of 2018 were recorded with a mortality rate of 0.46 percent (DOH, 2018). It is also a substantial economic burden, with aggregate direct medical cost of $344,542,000 (Am J Trop Med Hyg., 2015). In the Philippines, liquid and solid mosquito-repellant are one of the popular means to decrease population of mosquito indoors. However, these market products tend to have unpleasant fumes and may produce gaseous pollutants. (Koo et al., 1994; Koureas et al., 2012). Traditional solid mosquito-repellents tend to have organic filler, binders, and fire retardants that become residue after combustion. These turn into volatile organic compounds (VOC) (Wang et al., 2018) and particulate matters (PM) which irritate the lower respiratory system. Studies have shown that VOC's, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's), and aldehydes compose most of the pollutants produced from combustion of solid incense (Lee et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2018). This study aims to develop incense from Bos Taurus bovine that can repel mosquitoes, especially A. Aegypti. to help those devastated by calamities, for them not to use harmful commercial products, that is not eco-friendly.

METHODS

INHS Main's Laboratory was the experimental site. Cow pats were collected from cows that ate grass and grain. Smell-screening and comparative qualitative test was done to determine the potency of the developed incense.

RESULTS

The combustion product of the incense was able to kill mosquitoes compared to commercial incense. From the smell-screening test, the fumes from the developed incense did not cause any irritability to animals and humans. The incense exhibited no irritating smell to human subjects.

DISCUSSIONS

Invention of organic mosquito incense from scratch is a must. It can help specially those devastated from calamities and those that live in the provinces where people tend to use harmful mosquito coils just to combat the insects. It is important to know that mosquitoes are nuisance and a public-health threat to the current generation, those insects killed more humans than most of human murderers did.