The Repellent Effect of Essential Oils from Cymbopogon Citratus, Mentha Piperita and Citrus Sinensis Peel Against Blattella Germanica (L.)

Lim, Chin Jinn (2019) The Repellent Effect of Essential Oils from Cymbopogon Citratus, Mentha Piperita and Citrus Sinensis Peel Against Blattella Germanica (L.). Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

Text Lim Chin Jinn_Full Text.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (1MB)

Abstract

Blattella germanica is the main pest of the household, restaurants. It may contaminate food and utensils to cause food poisoning. This study was conducted to test the repellent effect to the Blattella germanica with the essential oil extracted from Cybopogon citratus, Mentha piperta and Citrus reticulata peel by using hydrodistillation. For each of the extracts, 0.1%, 1%, 10% and 50% of essential oils were prepared in acetone. The repellency was determined by observing the movement of cockroach placed in a petri dish with one half of the filter paper treated with essential oils and another half acted as a control. The movement of Blattella germanica was observed for 5 min and the experiment was repeated for 5 times. Blank test shown the repellent percentages (%) were calculated for each experiment and the results indicated that all essential oil extracts showed 100% of repellent rate at 50% concentration. At the concentration of 0.1%, essential oil from Cybopogon citratus showed the highest repellent rate (98.1%) among the 3 essential oil extracts followed by Citrus sinensis peel (93.6%) and Mentha piperta (80.4%). All the essential oils also showed 95% to 100% of repellent rate at 1% concentration. This study indicates the potentials of using essential oils of Cybopogon citratus, Mentha piperta and Citrus reticulata peel as the repellents for Blattella germanica.