Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 104 (2010) 653–658

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Transactions of the Royal Society of

Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/trstmh

Microencapsulated citronella oil for mosquito repellent finishing of

cotton textiles
M.M. Miró Specos a,b , J.J. García c,d , J. Tornesello c , P. Marino a ,
M. Della Vecchia b , M.V. Defain Tesoriero b , L.G. Hermida b,∗
a
Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Textiles, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI), Avenida General Paz 5445 (B1650WAB),
San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
b
Centro Investigación y Desarrollo en Química, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI), Avenida General Paz 5445 (B1650WAB),
San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
c
Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), calle 2 n◦ 584, (1900), La
Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
d
Investigador Comisión Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CICPBA)

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Microcapsules containing citronella essential oil were prepared by complex coacervation
Received 26 January 2010 and applied to cotton textiles in order to study the repellent efficacy of the obtained fabrics.
Received in revised form 22 June 2010
Citronella released from treated textiles was indirectly monitored by the extractable con-
Accepted 22 June 2010
tent of its main components. Repellent activity was assessed by exposure of a human hand
Available online 31 July 2010
and arm covered with the treated textiles to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Fabrics treated with
microencapsulated citronella presented a higher and longer lasting protection from insects
Keywords:
compared to fabrics sprayed with an ethanol solution of the essential oil, assuring a repellent
microencapsulation
citronella oil effect higher than 90% for three weeks. Complex coacervation is a simple, low cost, scalable
mosquitoes and reproducible method of obtaining encapsulated essential oils for textile application.
repellency Repellent textiles were achieved by padding cotton fabrics with microcapsules slurries
cotton textiles using a conventional pad-dry method. This methodology requires no additional invest-
coacervation ment for textile finishing industries, which is a desirable factor in developing countries.

© 2010 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All
rights reserved.

1. Introduction Fever were reported in Argentina.2 A significant outbreak

Mosquitoes are insects of major public health concern
because many species are vectors of diseases. Aedes aegypti
is the primary vector of urban yellow fever and dengue,
the most important arboviral human infection worldwide.
Infected specimens are widely distributed in Argentina due
to the traffic of people from affected neighbouring regions
and to adequate climatic conditions.1 From1998 to the
middle of 2007, a total of 4718 suspected cases of Dengue
∗ Corresponding author. Tel./Fax: +54 11 4724 6289.
E-mail address: lhermida@inti.gob.ar (L.G. Hermida).
has been taking place in several Argentine provinces since
February 2009 with more than 20 000 clinical cases of
Dengue fever, including five cases of Dengue Hemorrhagic
Fever, and four deaths up to April 2009.3
In recent years various essential oils have been reported
as mosquito repellents due to their eco-friendly and
biodegradable nature,4,5 in particular, the essential oil
extracted from Cymbopogon nardus (citronella), one of
the main aromatic crops grown in subtropical regions
of Argentina such as Mesopotamia, Chaco and Formosa.
Citronella has been found to possess effective repellent
activity against A. aegypti females for 2 h after the direct
application of pure oil on the skin of human subjects.6

0035-9203/$ – see front matter © 2010 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.trstmh.2010.06.004
654 M.M.M. Specos et al. / Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 104 (2010) 653–658
A more durable effect has been found with synthetic
repellents such as DEET, the most widespread mosquito
repellent. Recent studies have shown that a formulation
with 80% DEET provides almost 14 h of protection against
Aedes aegypti while a 7% formulation provides protection
for less than 4 h.7
The incorporation of insect repellents in textiles seemed
an alternative way to provide longer lasting protection,
although their direct application to fabrics has proven to
be inefficient in prolonging the repellence for long enough.
Microencapsulation technology has enabled an increase
in the durability of the desired effect in versatile textile
finishing. A microcapsule provides both space for storing
a certain amount of a functional agent and a protective
shield from the effects of sunlight, moisture and oxygen.
The release of the functional agent occurs by diffusion
through the capsule wall and/or rupture of the microcap-
sules. Therefore, the use of microcapsules could provide a
durable repellent finish that could be applied to a multitude
of fibres.8
Fabrics with repellent activity have been previously
achieved by polymer coating methods,9 by encapsulation
of DEET in chitosan microcapsules,10 and by inclusion of
DEET and permethrin in cyclodextrins grafted to textile
substrates.11 However, to the best of our knowledge, the
repellent efficacy of cotton fabrics with microencapsulated
citronella oil finishes has not been investigated.
The aim of this work is to study the repellency to
female A. aegypti of fabrics treated with gelatin-arabic gum
microcapsules containing citronella oil. These microsys-
tems have been selected due to the low cost and the
biocompatible nature of the ingredients involved, which
is most desirable in fabrics intended for human use. Micro-
capsules containing citronella oil were characterized and
applied to cotton textiles. The residual mosquito repel-
lency of treated fabrics was determined by means of an in
vivo assay and was compared to the repellency of fabrics
sprayed with non-encapsulated citronella.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Materials
Citronella essential oil (Fornasari Ltd., Buenos Aires,
Argentina) was used as mosquito repellent agent. The
fabric used was a bleached 100% cotton plain weave
with a specific weight of 140 g/m2 . Type A gelatin
(Rousselot Argentina Corp., Buenos Aires, Argentina) and
arabic gum (Van Rossum Ltd., Buenos Aires, Argentina)
were employed as wall materials. Glutardialdehyde 25%
w/w (Merck & Co. Inc., Hohenbrunn, Germany) was
used as hardening agent. All chemicals were reagent-
grade.
2.2. Preparation and characterization of microcapsules
Microencapsulation of essential oil was performed by
complex coacervation as previously described.12 Briefly,
an o/w emulsion was prepared by homogenization of
1.5% w/v gelatin with citronella essential oil for five
minutes at 18 500 rpm with a high shear homogenizer Hei-
dolph 900 DIAX (Schwabach, Germany). Temperature was
maintained at 40 ◦ C while 1.5% w/v arabic gum solution
was added drop-by-drop (5:1 w/w oil to total polymer
ratio). Coacervation was accomplished by dilution with
distilled water at a rate of 20 ml/min. Temperature was
then reduced to below 10 ◦ C and the pH was adjusted
to 8 with sodium hydroxide. 0.6 ml of a 25% w/v glu-
tardialdehyde aqueous solution, corresponding to 0.03
mmol glutardialdehyde / g protein, was slowly added upon
mechanical stirring with a pitched blade impeller Hei-
dolph RGL 500 (Schwabach, Germany). The suspension
of gelatin-arabic gum microcapsules containing citronella
was kept upon magnetic stirring at room temperature
overnight. Size and morphology of microcapsules were
determined by optical microscopy (OM) using a Zeiss
Axioskop 40 microscope with a Nikon coolpix 8800 cam-
era (Göttingen, Germany). Microcapsules slurry was spray
dried in an AS Niroatomizer mobile minor unit (Soeborg,
Denmark) using an inlet temperature of 120 ◦ C and an
outlet temperature of 90 ◦ C. A free-flowing powder was
obtained and was further analyzed by scanning electron
microscopy in a Philips SEM 505 (Philips/FEI, Eindhoven,
Netherlands).
2.3. Textile treatment and evaluation
Cotton fabrics were treated either with microencapsu-
lated citronella or by spraying with an ethanolic solution
of citronella. In the first case, cotton fabrics were padded
twice through an aqueous finish bath containing cit-
ronella microcapsules (16% solid in water), nipped to obtain
a wet pickup of 100%, and dried in the tenter frame
at 100 ◦ C for three minutes. In the second case, a 10%
w/w solution of citronella oil in ethanol was prepared
and sprayed onto fabrics until the samples were entirely
wet.
All samples were cut into 10 cm × 10 cm pieces as spec-
imens and stored for up to 44 days indoors at 22 ± 4 ◦ C
and 65 ± 5% relative humidity. On each day of a pre-
defined series of time intervals, samples were taken and
tested by two independent methods. First, a judge smelt
the swatch after scratching an ‘x’ on the specimen with
a plastic stick. Samples were measured on a positive
and negative scale about the presence of the fragrance.13
Second, a solvent extraction of citronella essential oil
from textiles was performed as previously described.14
Briefly, three specimens of each sample were incubated
with ethanol for 24 hours at room temperature in closed
vials with magnetic stirring. The three main compo-
nents of citronella: citronellal, citronellol and geraniol
were determined in the ethanolic extracts by gas chro-
matography (GC) coupled to a flame-ionization detector
(Thermoquest, Milan, Italy) using an HP-5 column in the
following conditions: 80 ◦ C initial temperature, 8 ◦ C/min
temperature gradient, and 200 ◦ C final temperature. Tex-
tiles sprayed with the ethanolic solution of citronella were
extracted with ethanol as described and analyzed by GC
in order to determine the initial content of citronella. The
aforementioned GC conditions were also used to charac-
terize the composition of the original citronella essential
oil.
 M.M.M. Specos et al. / Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 104 (2010) 653–658 655

2.4. Test animals

Mosquitoes were reared in the laboratory using the

methods described.15 Egg hatching was induced in dechlo-
rinated water. Larvae were reared in plastic pans and fed
with finely ground guinea pig pellets. Adult mosquitoes
were maintained in cages (50 x 50 x 50 cm) and fed with a
10% sucrose solution.

2.5. Repellency test procedure

Three different types of gloves were employed for the

evaluation of repellent activity. Gloves were made with
untreated fabrics (UF), fabrics sprayed with an ethano-
lic solution of citronella (CF), and fabrics treated with
microencapsulated citronella (MCF). They were hung in the
open-air during the period of the assay.
The repellent activity was evaluated by inserting a
human hand and arm covered with the gloves into a test
chamber (50 x 50 x 50 cm), based on cage tests described in
bibliography.16 The covered arm was kept for one minute in
the test chamber containing approximately 200 A. aegypti
adult females which had not been fed for three to five
days. The number of insects landing was counted inde-
pendently by two observers. The same subject’s uncovered
arm and hand were also inserted as control. The trials were
conducted in triplicate at 26 ± 1 ◦ C and 80 ± 5%RH with a
5 minute waiting period between replicates.
The experiments were performed with the written con-
sent of the participants according to the regulations of
Bioethics and Biosecurity of the National University of La
Plata and of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Figure 1. Optical microphotographs of microcapsules containing cit-
ronella essential oil magnified x100.
geraniol contents, which were 35%, 9% and 19% w/w
respectively, according to Argentine standard IRAM-SAIPA
N 18520. Microcapsules containing citronella oil were
characterized by optical and electronic microscopy before
and after spray drying respectively. Figure 1 shows the
blackberry-like morphology of the microcapsules in a fresh
slurry and their apparent diameter which varied from 25 to
100 ␮m. SEM microphotographs of spray dried microcap-
sules clearly show two types of structures: small spherical
units of less than 10 ␮m and agglomerates ranging from 25
to 100 ␮m (Figure 2).
3.2. Characterization of fabrics treated with
encapsulated citronella

2.6. Data analysis Textile substrates were analyzed by SEM after impreg-
nation with the microcapsule slurry. Figures 3a and 3b
The percentage of insects landing on a treated fabric (CF show the surface appearance of untreated and treated
or MCF) was calculated against untreated fabrics using Eq.1: fabrics respectively. Individual particles were no longer
observed on the surface of treated fabric (Figure 3b); a thin
layer covered the fibers instead.
MTF
% Insects landing = × 100 Odour evaluation on fabrics was performed as a comple-
MUF
mentary test to the determination of extractable citronella
where MTF and MUF correspond to the mean number
of mosquitoes landing on treated and untreated fabrics
respectively.
The repellency was indirectly calculated from the per-
centage of insects landing on treated fabrics with Eq.2:
 MTF 
% Repellency = 100 − × 100
MUF
Media and standard deviations for replicates were
obtained at each time and analyzed using ANOVA and
the Tukey test for P = 0.05 to detect significant differences
among media.

3. Results

3.1. Characterization of free and microencapsulated

citronella oil

Gas chromatography analysis of free citronella con- Figure 2. Scanning electron microphotographs of spray dried microcap-
firmed Java type oil based on citronellal, citronellol and sules containing citronella essential oil magnified x 500.
656 M.M.M. Specos et al. / Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 104 (2010) 653–658

Figure 4. Relative amounts of extractable components from MCF samples

as a function of time: citronellal (black circles), citronellol (white circles)
and geraniol (black triangles). Results are expressed as the percentage of
each component with respect to the initial content (time = 0). Bars show
standard deviations for n = 3.

control. Four different levels can be clearly differentiated:

first, the untreated fabric (UF) gave a certain degree of pro-
tection to the bare arm during the whole experiment, as
evidenced by the reduced number of landing mosquitoes.
The glove sprayed with citronella (CF) increased the pro-
tection with respect to untreated cotton for 16 days but
the repellency was limited. In contrast, the arm covered
with MCF presented the highest and longest lasting pro-
Figure 3. Scanning electron microphotographs of a) untreated cotton fab- tection from insects. The number of mosquitoes landing
rics (UF) b) cotton fabrics treated with microencapsulated citronella (MCF) on MCF in the first 21 days was negligible, which means
magnified x 1000. repellency higher than 90%. In order to compare these two
repellent fabrics with a lower influence of experimental
oil. Citronella fragrance could be smelt in MCF without variability, results were plotted as the percentage of insects
scratching them after 28 days hanging in the open-air. At landing (Eq.1) as a function of time (Figure 5). The initial
longer periods fragrance could only be smelt upon scratch- percentage of mosquitoes landing was 33% and 8% for CF
ing the fabrics.
The first significant difference between CF and MCF Table 1
was the initial amount of extractable citronella oil. Cit- Number of insects landing after 1 min exposure on the bare arm, on the
arm covered with untreated fabric (UF), with fabrics treated by spraying
ronellal, citronellol and geraniol contents determined in
citronella (CF) or with fabrics treated with microencapsulated citronella
ethanol extracts from sprayed fabrics were 691, 384 and (MCF).
833 mg per 100 g of fabric respectively, while much lower
Day/Sample Bare arm UF CF MCF
values were obtained after extraction of fabrics impreg-
nated with microencapsulated citronella, namely 35, 18 1 36 ± 5 24 ± 4 8 ± 2 2 ± 1
5 46 ± 6 26 ± 4 20 ± 4 1 ± 1
and 75 mg per 100 g of fabric. The oil release from MCF was
7 72 ± 8 48 ± 9 22 ± 4 3 ± 1
indirectly studied by quantifying the extractable amount 9 49 ± 6 18 ± 6 11 ± 3 5 ± 2
of citronellal, citronellol and geraniol as a function of 12 59 ± 4 28 ± 5 16 ± 5 1 ± 1
time. Results are expressed as percentage of extractable 14 34 ± 7 6 ± 3 4 ± 0 0 ± 1
component with respect to its initial content in MCF. 16 74 ± 5 33 ± 6a 19 ± 7a 3 ± 2
19 81 ± 6 45 ± 5 36 ± 4 4 ± 2
Figure 4 shows a striking decrease in the amount of
21 93 ± 3 55 ± 6 49 ± 6 3 ± 2b
extracted components, especially geraniol, after the first 23 87 ± 5 45 ± 4 42 ± 11 25 ± 5b
week. 26 96 ± 9 43 ± 6 35 ± 6c 24 ± 7c
30 101 ± 6 48 ± 5 21 ± 8 23 ± 4
33 97 ± 7 43 ± 11d 27 ± 8d 28 ± 8d
3.3. Repellency Test 37 63 ± 7 44 ± 15 48 ± 15 29 ± 13
40 59 ± 8 35 ± 7 33 ± 8 25 ± 8
Table 1 shows the results of the repellency test 44 31 ± 5 16 ± 4 12 ± 7 15 ± 10
expressed as the mean number of insects landing on the Results are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 3).
arm covered with treated and untreated fabrics; the num- a,b,c
indicate statistical differences between the two means (P < 0.05).
d
ber of insects landing on the bare arm is included as a indicates no statistical differences among the three values (P < 0.05).
 M.M.M. Specos et al. / Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 104 (2010) 653–658
Figure 5. Variation of the percentage of insects landing on fabrics sprayed with citronella oil (CF; black circles) or fabrics treated with microencapsulated
citronella oil (MCF; grey triangles) referred to untreated fabrics. Bars show standard deviations for n = 3.
and MCF respectively and this difference persisted during
the first 21 days (P < 0.05). Then, the repellent efficacy of
MCF decreased sharply but it was still significantly differ-
ent from CF until day 26. After 33 days no difference could
be observed between any of the cotton samples.
4. Discussion
Microcapsules obtained by complex coacervation were
similar in size and morphology to those reported in the
literature.12,17 However, once applied to textiles they lose
their morphology and only a thin layer covering the treated
fabrics is observed. This can be due to the well known film-
forming properties of gelatin, an effect already observed
after treatment of cotton fabrics with microparticles of
poly(n-butyl acrylate) and chitosan, both described as film-
forming polymers.18
The low level of citronella oil extracted from MCF was
much lower than the one obtained for CF and significantly
lower than our previous results of extractable limonene
from fabrics treated with microencapsulated lemon essen-
tial oil.12 This difference could result from one or all
of the following: (i) the loss of citronella oil during the
microencapsulation process and/or (ii) during the textile
application due to a low resistance of the microcapsules
to heat or pressure and/or (iii) an incomplete oil extrac-
tion from impregnated textiles. The first option (i) seems
quite improbable because a massive loss of oil during the
microencapsulation process should be evidenced by visible
oil droplets floating on the suspension surface. An incom-
plete extraction (iii) was also discarded because citronella
was not detected after further extractions with ethanol
or smelt on extracted fabrics. Therefore, considering the
structural changes observed in microcapsules once applied
to the fabrics (Figure 3b), (ii) seems the most probable
option. The parameters of complex coacervation which
have a clear influence on the resistance of microcapsules
to textile treatments, such as the core to wall ratio and
the hardening agent concentration, will be more deeply
studied in further experiments.
657
Regarding the release patterns of the oil components,
the initial decrease can be explained by the release of the
superficial oil. This phenomenon, known as ‘burst effect’,
has frequently been described in release studies of micro-
capsules intended for the controlled release of drugs.19 The
formation of a film on the fabric could have also contributed
to the oil loss and the initial sharp release observed for the
three citronella oil components.
Surprisingly, even though the initial extractable oil
was much lower in MCF than in CF, fabrics treated with
microencapsulated citronella (MCF) presented a signifi-
cantly higher repellent activity; over 90% for at least three
weeks.
These results are consistent with those obtained for
odour evaluation without scratching the fabrics. This was
expected since the repellent activity is an ‘olfactory effect’
mainly dependent on the quick evaporation of the active
products.11 Therefore, any increase in the oil content of
treated textiles would represent an increase in the durabil-
ity of the repellency. Further assays regarding the possible
causes of the oil loss will be performed in order to improve
the retention of citronella in cotton fabrics and conse-
quently increase the durability of the repellent activity of
the proposed system.
Most of the current research on long lasting repellency
has been done with microencapsulated DEET, the most
widely used insect repellent. N’Guessan et al.20 assessed
the efficacy of a slow-release formulation of microencap-
sulated DEET applied to bed nets against malaria vectors.
This DEET-treated mosquito netting proved to repel, inhibit
blood-feeding and kill mosquitoes for a period of at least 6
months under laboratory conditions.20
However, natural products such as repellent essential
oils are becoming increasingly popular because of their
low toxicity and customer approval. Therefore, it is impor-
tant to work on the development of long lasting repellent
textiles based on impregnation of essential oils.
Washing durability has not been specifically tested in
this study because our previous results show a very low
laundering stability for textiles treated with gelatin – arabic
658 M.M.M. Specos et al. / Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 104 (2010) 653–658
gum microcapsules.12 Even though this is still an unsolved
problem, fabrics treated with microencapsulated citronella
may have potential in some situations where protection is
required for several weeks with no need of washing such as
disposable cloths or repellency bands for people working in
the forest or in urban risk zones. The development of suit-
able methods for the retreatment of fabrics will be a next
step in research on repellent textiles. The improvement of
laundering stability will be also considered in future stud-
ies.
It must be stressed that the methodology described for
achieving this kind of repellent fabric is simple, low cost,
and reproducible and requires no additional investments
for textile finishing industries, a desirable factor in devel-
oping countries.
Authors’ Contributions: LGH, MMS, MVDT and PM con-
ceived the study protocol; LGH and MMS prepared the
microcapsules and the textile samples for further evalu-
ations; LGH, MVDT and MMS analyzed and interpreted the
data and wrote the manuscript; JJG and JT carried out the
repellency evaluations and reviewed the literature; MDV
carried out the GC evaluations as well as the interpretation
of the GC results. All authors read and approved the final
manuscript. MMS and LGH are guarantors of the paper.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank
Mr. Germán Escobar and Mrs. Cristina Zunino for techni-
cal assistance in textile characterization and application
and Mrs. Laura Herrera for the final correction of the
manuscript.
Funding: None
Conflicts of interest: None declared
Ethical approval: Not required.
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