A mosquito repellent from Burundi

The association ACECI in Burundi (www.aceci.org) has developed a mosquito repellent based on Nepeta cataria (cataire en français). The study by local students in medicine in collaboration with Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique together with the Government of Burundi showed that catnip oil reduced the number of bites from mosquitoes by 91.7%. The trial involved 60 volunteers. This is no surprise to us. Our partner Ahmed Hassanali from Kenya had already shown in a well documented paper (Phytochemistry, 2011, 72, 109-114) that Nepeta cataria was in many aspects (spatial and contact repellency, knockdown) equivalent to the synthetic DEET. ACECI is managed by a young lady Ginette Karirekinyana and we have asked Ingo Vicens, our Artemisiia partner in Burundi, to contact her and they have decided to work together. Anyway Ingo’s wife Lydia Gatore is already producing and marketing phytomedical products from their huge garden. IFBV-BELHERB will try to contribute by making these phytoproducts known on the huge African market, to ultimately replace the synthetic products imported from the North.