Wanted: Garlic Lovers To Battle Mosquitoes

FARMINGTON — Feasting on cuisine loaded with garlic has been known to repel friends and lovers. Two UConn Health Center scientists want to know whether the seasoning repels mosquitoes and other blood-feasting insects as well.

“There’s a great deal of anecdotal evidence, especially in the veterinary world, that garlic repels mosquitoes,” said pathologist T.V. Rajan. “Farmers and horse owners feed it to their cows and horses to keep mosquitoes away. Our goal is to see if it really works,” said Dr Rajan.

“And, if it’s effective, we want to determine the active ingredient in garlic that makes it work,” said physiologist Steven Wikel, who is conducting the clinical trial with Dr Rajan.

Mosquito-transmitted diseases, like malaria and, more recently, West Nile virus, have long been significant public health concerns. Worries about the possible side effects of DEET and other chemicals have fueled interest in repellents that do not rely on insecticides.

“If garlic is really effective as a repellent, it would be very useful because it is cheap, readily available, and has no known side effects,” said Dr. Rajan.

To test garlic’s efficacy, Dr Rajan and Dr Wikel are seeking healthy volunteers over the age of 18 willing to take garlic in tablets and then expose their arm to a cage full of hungry mosquitoes. Participation in the clinical trial requires three visits to the Health Center. During the first visit, the volunteers receive a general health screening and two tablets, either garlic or placebo. For the second visit, the volunteers take one tablet at dinner the day before and another at lunch on the day of the visit. One to four hours after lunch, they visit the Health Center where they expose an arm to the mosquitoes. Twenty-eight days later, the process is repeated. Volunteers receive $50 for participation.

The mosquitoes have been specially bred in a laboratory at the Health Center so they are free of disease-causing pathogens.

“If garlic really works as a repellant, we want to be able to give some scientific basis for its efficacy,” said Dr Wikel.

For more information or to participate in the clinical trial, call the General Clinical Research Center at 800-213-4477.