Consumer demand for natural, plant- based alternatives to synthetic mosquito repellents like DEET has been building for some years. This is driven in part by increased consumer awareness of certain negative issues related to the use of DEET and the wider preference for effective, safe to use personal care products that are based on raw materials from renewable and sustainable resources. Ecocert and Cosmos Natural certification – long-established and important standards in the cosmetic industry – are now finding increasing relevance in the market for insect repellents and the active ingredients they contain. Uniquely and unlike materials used in the cosmetic industry, the natural claims made for active ingredients in mosquito repellents remain secondary in importance to their efficacy – for obvious reasons concerning the potential implications for their role in the prevention of dangerous insect vector borne diseases like malaria, Dengue and Zika virus. Natural, plant-based extracts that make notional, unquantified or unsubstantiated claims around repellence are a poor and ineffective substitute for proven and trusted synthetic actives. In European markets, the implementation of ECHA’s Biocidal Product Regulation ( BPR ) represents a watershed for Natural offerings due to the Regulation’s compulsory requirement for repellent active manufacturers to provide proof of efficacy according to prescribed, standardised test methodology. Product claims around efficacy and the quantification of protection, measured in hours, must now be supported by actual data . Prior to this, under the preceding European Biocide Directive (98/8/EC) controlling repellent actives, this had not been the case .
The raising of the technical bar to market entry has narrowed the options available to formulators and para menthane 3,8 – diol (PMD) – based actives have emerged as the principle material offering equivalent efficacy to that of established synthetic actives. First generation PMD – rich botanical oils ( PMDRBO ) derived from Eucalyptus Citriodora (EC) essential oil feedstocks, provided the basis for the first truly Natural, PMD – based repellents and these are now widely available in the market. The growing trend for pleasant, safe to use and more cost effective , water-based formulations has led to the development of a second generation PMDRBO, Citrepel ® 75, based on a fractionated Cymbopogon Winterianus ( Java Citronella ) essential oil , that can, uniquely, be formulated with cold process to deliver stable o/w emulsions for lotions, sprays, creams, roll on, wipes and solid stick formulations ( warm process), without the need for alcohol or co-solvents
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