Biocompatible Nutmeg Oil-Loaded Nanoemulsion as Phyto-Repellent.

Masturah Mohd Narawi,Vuanghao Lim,Nur Nadhirah Mohamad Zain,Chau Ling Tham,Muggundha Raoov Ramachandran,Yoke Keong Yong,Siti Fatimah Samsurrijal,Hock Ing Chiu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2020.00214

Masturah Mohd Narawi, Vuanghao Lim + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00214

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Abstract

Plant essential oils are widely used in perfumes and insect repellent products. However, due to the high volatility of the constituents in essential oils, their efficacy as a repellent product is less effective than that of synthetic compounds. Using a nanoemulsion as a carrier is one way to overcome this disadvantage of essential oils. Nutmeg oil-loaded nanoemulsion (NT) was prepared using a high speed homogenizer and sonicator with varying amounts of surfactant, glycerol, and distilled water. Using a phase diagram, different formulations were tested for their droplet size and insect repellent activity. The nanoemulsion containing 6.25% surfactant and 91.25% glycerol (NT 6) had the highest percentage of protection (87.81%) in terms of repellent activity among the formulations tested for the 8 h duration of the experiment. The droplet size of NT 6 was 217.4 nm, and its polydispersity index (PDI) was 0.248. The zeta potential value was –44.2 mV, and the viscosity was 2.49 Pa.s at pH 5.6. The in vitro release profile was 71.5%. When the cytotoxicity of NT 6 at 400 μg/mL was tested using the MTS assay, cell viability was 97.38%. Physical appearance and stability of the nanoemulsion improved with the addition of glycerol as a co-solvent. In summary, a nutmeg oil-loaded nanoemulsion was successfully formulated and its controlled release of the essential oil showed mosquito repellent activity, thus eliminating the disadvantages of essential oils.

Highlights

Zika virus recently spread to Malaysia, with six cases reported in September 2016 (Subramaniam, 2016)
We aim to investigate the effect of high energy emulsification of the system consisting nutmeg oil, together with physicochemical characteristics, the release study and mosquito repellent activity of the nutmeg oil-loaded nanoemulsion
Incorporating of essential oil using a nanoemulsion system can be used to control the release of the oil and prolong the insect repelling effect

Summary

Introduction

Zika virus recently spread to Malaysia, with six cases reported in September 2016 (Subramaniam, 2016). Zika virus, which is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that is closely related to the dengue virus, first appeared in Brazil and spread to countries in Latin America (Subramaniam, 2016). Other mosquito-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya have become major health problems in tropical and subtropical countries (Adeniran and Fabiyi, 2012; Gupta et al, 2013). The use of insect repellent products is essential to prevent these diseases (Rocha-Filho et al, 2014). N, N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET) is the synthetic main active ingredient in commercial mosquito repellent products, and it has excellent repellency against a wide range of Repellency of Nutmeg Oil Nanoemulsion insects (Hang Chio and Yang, 2008). DEET poses health risks such as developmental toxicity in animals and environment (Iyer and Makris, 2010; Solomon et al, 2012)

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