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ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(4), 2044-2047
2044
Journal Homepage: - www.journalijar.com
Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/4050
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/4050
RESEARCH ARTICLE
EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT ESSENTIAL OILS, USES IN CASE OF TREATMENT AND CONTROL
THE HEAD LICE.
S H. Salehi and G. Heshmat.
Department of pharmacy, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia.
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Manuscript Info Abstract
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Manuscript History
Received: 16 February 2017
Final Accepted: 21 March 2017
Published: April 2017
The head lice (Pediculus capitis) which cause pediculosis is an
important infectious agent all around the world and in the history of
mankind pediculus capitis is one of the oldest known parasites. Head
lice settled in the head scalp especially in the occipital and temporal
region and cause infestation by sucking blood. Head lice often seen in
almost in every region of the world especially in the cold and temporal
climate and reports shows that it can be seen frequently in the winter
months.
Geographic region inhabited by society, climate condition ethnic
various depending on the properties and hygiene, however it can be
seen in each type of socioeconomic environment. Because of the good
movement of the head lice, bad hygiene condition such as prison,
camps, schools, kindergartens, public shelters, and also during war,
flood or natural disaster such as earthquake can be seen more
frequently. Studies illustrate that head lice is very common between
female student, their long hair and close relationship shows as a cause
of frequent occurrence.
In this case, pruritus of variable intensity and allergic reactions may
occurs by head lice saliva and faecal also other secondary
contamination have been occur associated to scratching ,abrasion and
crusting such as lymphadenopathy infections. The conventional head
lice products shows low efficacy because of emerging resistance and
cross-resistance by head lice. Thereby growing tendency to use non-
toxic and natural anti-lice product with low chance of evaluation of
resistance promote scientist to search new control products from, plant
extract and plant derived compounds especially essential oils.
Copy Right, IJAR, 2017,. All rights reserved.
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Introduction:-
Head lice infestation is caused by pediculus humanus capitis De Geer, blonging to the family Pediculocidae,
wingless and strictly obligatory ectoparasite. Head lice are highly propagate only on human scalp and hair and
transmission occurs by direct head-to-head contact. Head lice may lead to enormous pruritus, skin inflammation,
urticarial, exudation, excoriation, conjunctivitis, lymph node swellings, eczema, scars, hair glue-up to “plica
polonica” ending in pain and restless especially in children. The optimal method for the diagnosis of active head lice
infestation is dry/wet combing by using most common pediculicide such as, organochlorine( DDT and Lindane),
organophosphorus (malathion), carbamet (carbaryl), pyrethrin (permethrin and δ-phenothrin), and avermestin
Corresponding Author:- S H. Salehi.
Address:- Department of pharmacy, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia.
ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(4), 2044-2047
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(ivermectin-orginated from Streptomyces avermitilis) insecticide(Yang et al. 2004). Unfortunately in recent years
head lice shows a high resistance to existing products (Abdel-Ghaffar et al. 2009; Di Campli et al.2012; Feldmeier
2012).
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was discovered in 1939 and used to control head lice until the end of World
War 2. Developing resistance to DDT encourage scientist to find new insecticide. Late of 1940 Lindane, an
organochlorine, was founded to be more effective than DDT and gradually replaced in many countries. Currently in
many countries the mainstay of head lice treatment are topical chemical insecticide. Finally scientist start to
investigate alternative treatments because of tree main reason, first one is to deal with created resistance, secondly is
safety reason (some products are flammable or even if they are not flammable without contact to hair, may become
inflamed when there is a mixture consisting of hair and hair-lice compound, some products are contain component
such as do silicon-derivates with their volatile oil that may harmful for the surface of lung epithelia or component
may induce harm if they are transported by a carrier in to the skin) and finally because of prohibitive cost of
synthetic pyrethrins and pyrethroids (Heukelbach et al 2006, p. 279; Abdel-Ghaffar et al.2009).
Mechanism of action:-
There are many diverse category of products formulated for treating head louse infestation and many different sorts
of active constituents. Numerous groups of insecticides that works in contradiction of the insect nervous system by
either blocking nerve impulses or by over stimulating them. A nerve impulse be made up of electrical charge that
transferrable along the nerve path. This electrical charge is created by a complex process in which the nerve cell
pumps ions in and out through the membrane that surrounds the cell. The nerve ends do not touch but have synapses
between them. The electrical impulse is not able to cross this gap. Most nerve impulses are able to cross the junction
between nerve cells using what is known as a transmitter-substance as a connection. The transmitter substance is
concealed from the end of the nerve cell when it is stimulated by a nerve impulse. One of the most common
transmitter-substance is acetylcholine. When the nerve impulse reaches the junction acetylcholine is a connection, so
the impulse can pass over and after the impulse is passed on the acetylcholine is broken down by an enzyme called
acetylcholinesterase (Waghmars and Dhumal 2014). Natural product modes of action are not expected to be
different.
Summary of species with documented activity against Pediculusis humanus capitis:-
Myrtaceae Melaleuca alternifoliaHeukelbach et al. (2006)
Meliaceae Azadirachta indicaHeukelbach et al. (2006)
Rutaceae Citrus paradiseAbdel-Ghaffar et al. (2009)
Laminaceae Lavandula angostifolia
Myrtaceae Eucalyptus globulusToloza et al. (2009)
Annonaceae Annona squamosalHeukelbach et al. (2006)
Lamiaceae Mentha piperita Alankar (2009)
Thymus vulgarisVeal (1996)
Rosmarinus officinalis Veal (1996)
Arecaceae Cocos nucifera Lin& Wilkens (2006)
FabaceaeAbrus precatoriousUpadhyay et al. (2011)
MyristicaceaeMyristica fragransVeal (1996)
Lauraceae Cinnamonum zeylanicum Veal (1996)
Natural product insecticides:-
Tea tree oil
Tea tree oil is distilled by steam from the leaves of the tea tree, Melaleuca alternifolia and is a complex mixture of
over 100 hydrocarbons and terpenes (Heukelbach et al. 2006). Veal (1996) found 94% mortality against body lice
with 1% emulsion of tea tree oil in water, furthermore a mixture of tea tree oil with cinnamon leaf oil (1:1) at 1%
with 40% ethanol showed 100% efficacy against adult body lice after a 17 hr exposure. In another study tea tree oil
illustrates less efficacy than δ-phenothrin and pyrethrum. Moreover in vitro study against head lice showed that 1%
tea tree oil caused no mortality after 2 hours while 10% concentration demonstrates 86% mortality (Heukelbach et
al. 2006). Heukelbach find 97% mortality of head lice after four hours with an emulsion of 5% tea tree oil in 20%
ethanol. The most effective components which are 100% effective against head lice at 10% concentration can be
mentioned as terpinene-4-ol, terralin, and α-terpeninol (Walton et al. 2004). Tea tree oil shows 94.1% on adult and
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59.1% on eggs mortality by using water as a solvent, while solvent changes with ethanol mortality percentage is
93.2% on adult and 83.3% on eggs head lice.
Neem extract:-
About 150 compounds have been isolated from neem tree. Neem tree extract (Azadirachta indica) killed head lice
slowly in vitro in a filter paper test and was less effective than Malathion, permethrin and benzyl benzoate
(Heukelbach et al. 2006). Another study explain the effectiveness of neem seed- based shampoo product formulation
kills mechanically significantly eggs, juveniles and adult body and head lice and thus offers a complete treatment
from head lice infestations upon a single application of the shampoo. The shampoo enters the aeropyles of the eggs
and cover their surface whilst in motile stage the shampoo penetrates the lateral tracheal openings, also this shampoo
tested dermatologically and results shows that this product is very safe and skin-friendly (pittermann et al. 2008),
thus it makes this product possible to get rid of head lice upon a single application. The shampoo enters the
aeropyles of the eggs and cover their surface whilst in motile stage the shampoo penetrates the lateral tracheal
openings (Mehlhorn et al. 2011).
Grapefruit extract:-
Licatack® is a newly developed anti louse shampoo that contains extracts of grapefruits and high value shampoo
components. This product had been tested, and demonstrate very good skin safety and other dermatological aspects.
The clinical test result demonstrates full activity of this product in the case of a very high infestation proportion
(Abdel-Ghaffar et al. 2009).
Custard apple seed extract:-
Custard apple has been used in traditional Thai medicine against pediculosis since lone ago. A formulation
containing 20% Annona squamosal seed extract plus petroleum ether was illustrated high efficacy against head lice
infestation in a small controlled trial (93% mortality of head lice). Moreover this product showed more than 90%
efficacy against head lice in three hours after application, as compared with 25% benzyl benzoate which killed 60%
of lice in the control group Custard apple seed extract in coconut oil killed 98% of head lice within two hours
(Heukelbach et al. 2006).
Abrus precatorius:-
Is a woody plant distributed broadlyentirely overIndia and the plant is conventionally used for the cure of sore
tongue and it also has diaphoretic action. Seeds of Abrus precatorius are frequently used as purgative, emetic,
aphrodisiac and in nervous disorder in traditional and popular medicines. A. precatorius seeds are known for their
toxicity but petroleum ether extract do not contain toxic principle.The use of A.precatorius extract for controlling
lice infestations has been valid from the excellent results got after screening for potential anti-lice and ovicidal
activity.Effects of A. precatorius seed extracts against Pediculus humanus capitis adults and nymphs demonstrates
that in 15 % concentration seed oil in petroleum ether is able to kill 100% of head lice and A. precatorius appear as a
good alternative instead of chemicals for treating human head lice (Upadhyay et al 2011)
Thymus vulgaris plus Rosmarinus officinalis:-
Veal (1996) state, Red thyme, using water as a solvent followed by a rinse illustrates 100% mortality on adult
headlice and 50.8% on eggs, while solvent changes by ethanol, mortality percentage shows difference by 83.9% on
adult, 92% on eggs on head lice. On the other hand rosemary oil demonstrates 79.5% mortality using ethanol as a
solvent on adult head lice.A mixture of 4 ml of Red thyme and 6 ml of Rosemary oil using 40% ethanol as a solvent
tested and results shows, 87.3% by using rinse and 87% without using rinse in 17 hours exposure period.
Mentha piperita ,Myristica fragrans& Globolus eucalyptus:-
One essential oil based item for consumption containing 11.0% eucalyptus oil was stated to have an efficacy of
82.5% against head lice compared to kill rate of 36.15 for a product containing pyrethrins and piperonyl butoxide
(Barker and Altman 2010). In the case of lotion in ethanol 96%, the once containing peppermint, eucalyptus and
lavender, did not show a significant activity while the mixture of peppermint and eucalyptus in a totalconcentration
of 10% showed the best performance. The study also demonstrate that addition of aliphatic alcohols enhance the
insecticidal efficacy, and insecticidal activity systematically increase with increase in carbon atoms in the aliphatic
alcohols and maximum activity was observed when the total number of carbon atoms was 12 (Gonzalez Audino et
al. 2007).The study use the mixture of 3 ml Peppermint oil and 7 ml Nutmeg oil using 40% ethanol as a solvent and
results shows 100% mortality in both using rinse and without rinse in 17 hours exposure period Veal (1996).
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Cinnamonum zeylanicum & Mentha piperita:-
Study represented percentage of mortality 86% adult and 25.7% eggs of head lice of cinnamon leaf, using water as
solvent. On the other hand researchers change the solvent and using ethanol followed by rinse and the results
illustrate 100% mortality in both adult and eggs. The mixture of tea tree oil and cinnamon leaf in the same
proportion of 5 ml of each in 40% ethanol as a solvent shows 100% mortality by using rinse and without risen in 17
hours exposure(Veal 1996).
Reference:-
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