Formulation and evaluation of eco-friendly handmade herbal mosquito repellent cone

A mosquito belongs to the insect-family Culicidae, order Diptera, suborder Nematocera and class Insecta. Mosquito act as vector which carries many disease causing parasites and viruses. Preventing mosquito spread is immensely necessary to stop spread of various contagious diseases. Now days, uses of plant based mosquito repellent have increased as synthetic repellents contains many noxious chemicals which can cause possible toxicity like skin toxicity and causes swelling, redness, itching and many health problems. The herbal mosquito repellent cones were prepared by using saw dust, cow dung, gum acacia, neem powder, eucalyptus powder and lemon grass powder. Lemon grass has insecticidal property. Saw dust increases the combustion. Gum acacia act as binder. Cow dung shows antioxidant and mosquito repellent property. Neem has mosquito repellent property. Herbal mosquito repellent cone were prepared by hand rolling method. The evaluation parameters of herbal mosquito repellent cone contain burning time (min), smoke visibility, odor, irritation test, ash weight (g.) and mosquito repellent activity. The formulation LNC containing lemon grass powder along with neem powder and cow dung in equal ratio shows best activity and maximum effectiveness in reducing mosquito number in comparison with all other formulations. In present study, the powders used in formulation were herbal based and eco-friendly and producing no side-effect on use. Here an attempt has been made to find out the novel formulation of different herbal plant powders containing alone and with combination for mosquito repellent cone.

Superhydrophobic, superamphiphobic and SLIPS materials as anti-corrosion and anti-biofouling barriers

Nature-inspired interfacial materials with special wettability have received enormous attention owing to their superior properties and promising multifunctional applications. Owing to the unique interfacial phase contacts and liquid-repellent property, the...

Fast and simple fabrication of SiO2/poly(vinylidene fluoride) coated cotton fabrics with asymmetric wettability via a facile spray-coating route

Cotton fabrics with hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic asymmetric surfaces are attractive as potential utilizable structures for functional garments. The spray-coating route could be deemed as a fast and simple way to achieve asymmetric surfaces. In this paper, SiO2 nanoparticles with size ∼ 205 nm were synthesized via the modified sol-gel method, and then modified with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) to form a hydrophobic surface. The SiO2 nanoparticles modified with PVDF were uniformly deposited on the outer surface of cotton fabric aided with the robust air flow force from the sprayer. The morphology and chemical structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, mapping, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that SiO2 nanoparticles were evenly deposited on the surface of cotton fibers and stable interfacial interaction occurred between SiO2 and PVDF molecular chains. The existence of SiO2 could increase the roughness of the fabric surface, which could enhance the water-repellent property of the coated fabrics. Furthermore, the water-repellent property and thermal insulation properties were evaluated via the water contact angle and thermal conductivity tests, respectively, and the results showed that 20 wt.% SiO2/PVDF fabric achieved a desirable level of contact angle, 136.6°, which was the largest water contact angle among all the samples, and the lowest thermal conductivity of 0.033 W/mK, resulting from the existence of SiO2 nanoparticles. Such a fast and simple spray-coating strategy could be widely introduced into asymmetric fabric modification, and such asymmetric fabrics with reasonable water-repellent and thermal insulating outer surfaces could act as candidates in the field of functional garments.

Evaluation of Topicure® Plus spray on sheep infested with Myiasis

The present study was designed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of polyherbal aerosol spray - Topicure® Plus against maggot infested wounds in sheep. Two sheep presented at Vellore Veterinary Dispensary with a history of maggot infested wound were selected. Based on the severity of wound, antibiotics (Ampicillin - 10 mg/kg body weight) and NSAIDs (Meloxicam - 0.5 mg/kg body weight on 1st day) were administered. The site of wound was clipped off the hair and cleaned with sterile saline solution and wiped with dry sterile cotton on first day of the treatment. Then Topicure® Plus was sprayed in sufficient quantities to cover the entire wound twice daily till complete healing of wound occurs. When Topicure® Plus spray was administered concurrent local treatment with other fly repellents/maggoticidal agents was not followed. Wound was observed for the changes in swelling, discharge, granulation tissue and wound healing process following the treatment till complete recovery. Similarly, fly repellent activity and duration, maggot repellent property, activity level and product satisfaction score were also recorded. The results indicate that Topicure® Plus had ensured faster wound healing (within 8 days) which is evident through reduction in pain, swelling, discharge and granulation tissue score along with superior fly repellent activity and duration, maggot repellent property. Therefore, it appears from the present study that treatment of myiasis wound with Topicure® Plus spray along with antibiotic regime was the most effective in field conditions as it avoids the day to day manual removal of maggots and induces the faster wound healing.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2017, 3(2): 216-220

Slippery surface based on lubricant infused hierarchical silicon nanowire film

Slippery surface based on lubricant infused hierarchical Si nanowire films was developed, which provided low contact angle with liquid droplet, while possessing liquid repellent property upon slight tilting.

Status of Site Test Methods of Organosilicon Hydrophobic Impregnants for Protecting Reinforced Concrete

The organosilicon hydrophobic impregnants is applied on concrete to prevent rebar corrosion with its water repellent property which can prevent the intrusion of chloride and other harmful media. On-site the parameters of organosilicon hydrophobic impregnants of controlling quality consist of resistance to chloride penetration, water absorption of concrete and impregnating depth of organosilicon hydrophobic impregnants. The status of test methods of these parameters is summarized and their advantages and disadvantages are briefly reviewed. Finally some ideas are presented about shortcomings of test methods.

Preparation of Carboxylated Polysiloxane and its Application in Leather Waterproofing

A dodecyl/amino functionalized polysiloxane (RASO) was firstly prepared by copolymerization of octamethylcyclotetrasiloane (D4), aminopropylmethyldiethoxysilane (KH-551), dodecylmethyldimethoxysilane (HD-109), and hexamethydisiloxane (MM) under basic catalyst. Then novel carboxylated polysiloxane (RCAS) was prepared by reaction of RASO with maleic anhydride. Finally RCAS was emulsified with alkyl alcohol polyoxyethylene ether (AEO) to form RCAS emulsions which were utilized in leather waterproofing. The as-synthesized RCAS was characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, TEM, and Particles size distribution (PSD) analyses, respectively and effect of dose of RCAS emulsion on hydrophobicity of the treated crust leather was also investigated in this work. Results showed that RCAS emulsion particles presented an uniform sphere with an average diameter of 96 nm. When dose of RCAS emulsion was larger than 6% (based on the weight of wet blue leather), the RCAS treated leather possessed better water-repellent property and water contact angle (WCA) on the grain side and flesh side of that could attain 130° and 138°, repectively.