Vishalani Vishnu Narainasamy’s research while affiliated with Kuala Lumpur Sports Medicine Centre and other places

In a forensic acarology study, conducted in a secondary forest of Forensic Science Simulation Site, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi, Selangor, six carcasses consisted of three monkeys and three rabbits were placed individually in steel enclosures and observed for 35 days. The carcasses, the soil beneath them and pitfall traps were checked daily for insects and mites. A species of mesostigmatid mite, Macrocheles scutatiformis was discovered and this is a first time reported in Malaysia. There are about 94.0% of Macrocheles present inside the cages of the monkey and rabbit carcasses. Most mites in this study were collected from soil beneath the carcasses, on a dung beetle and a Chrysomya rufifacies larva. Our findings showed that M. scutatiformis have a potential role in forensic investigation involving dead animals perhaps corpses especially during the dry stage of decomposition.

ObjeciveTo examine the repellency of crude plant extracts of onion (Allium cepa var. aggregatum (A. cepa)), garlic (Allium sativum (A. sativum)), clove (Syzygium aromaticum (S. aromaticum)), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum (C. zeylanicum)), ginger (Zingiber officinale (Z. officinale)) and pandanus (Pandanus amaryllifolious (P. amaryllifolious)) on larval Leptotrombidium deliense (L. deliense).Methods The repellency assay used is a modification of the technique developed by Azima. Extracts at different concentrations (10%, 5%, 2.5%, 1%, 0.1%, and 0.01%) were evaluated.ResultsAll extracts except that from ginger had similar repellencies ranging between 80%-96% at 10% concentration. At the lowest concentration (0.01%), onion extract gave the highest repellency (30%) followed by clove and cinnamon (23%).Conclusion Generally, the plant extracts showed various degrees of repellency against the larval mites and the repellency increased with increasing concentrations of the extracts.