“Mosquitoes Bugging You at Night? Certain Herbs and Toothpaste Could Be the Solution, Says New Research”

2023-05-20 08:22:29

Does the hum of mosquitoes around your head drive you crazy while you’re trying to sleep? Good news: There may be a cure. New research suggests that eating certain herbs can make you less attractive to mosquitoes.

Gilles LiesenborghsBron: The Telegraph

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Some scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore came to that conclusion after a complex experiment. They let six people sleep in a one-person tent that was directly connected by a pipe to a kind of arena where 200 mosquitoes were released. Using infrared cameras, the researchers were able to closely monitor the mosquitoes’ movements.

The researchers quickly noticed a constant: The mosquitoes seemed to be clearly attracted to the smell of people who emitted more carboxylic acids. People with elevated levels of eucalyptol, on the other hand, seemed to be much less attractive to mosquitoes.

Herbs and toothpaste

Eucalyptol is an aromatic compound found in many plants. Specifically, it can be found in mugwort, sweet basil, rosemary, sage and cardamom, among others. It is also regularly used in toothpaste and mouthwash. In theory, eating the right herbs or using a lot of toothpaste could reduce the chance of nighttime buzzing around your head.

“Indeed, our study suggests that high levels of eucalyptol in your body odor may make you less attractive to mosquitoes,” confirms Dr. Conor McMeniman to The Telegraph. “All our test subjects emitted some amount of eucalyptol, but the person who was found to be least attractive by the mosquitoes had noticeably higher amounts of the substance in their scent. This can be the result of a plant-based diet, but also of exogenous products such as toothpaste.”

“To draw definitive conclusions about the influence of a diet on your attractiveness to mosquitoes, however, a study with a much higher number of test subjects is needed first,” the researcher adds. McMeniman hopes to be able to use the same test set-up in the future to test more people and collect additional information about their eating patterns.