SoylentNews

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Add yet another use for cornstarch to the list, which already includes thickening soups and gravies, making adhesives, soothing skin and removing stains.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Peoria, Illinois, are now using the versatile commodity to make products that can fight insect pests, prevent disease and decay and impart water resistance to surfaces. Underpinning that effort is the team's use of patented procedures for converting cornstarch into a new class of material known as amylose inclusion complex (AIC)—an advance aimed at increasing the commodity's value even more.

Products created from the AIC include emulsions using essential oils from garlic, asafoetida (a type of spice) and other plants to control mosquito larvae in aquatic habitats. The emulsions are toxic to mosquito larvae but not the environment, which makes them promising botanical alternatives to synthetic insecticides, noted one of the ARS scientists, Ephantus Muturi, who is with the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria.

Muturi said the emulsions envelope droplets of the oils, stabilizing them and protecting them from extremes of heat or oxidation that can reduce their potency when applied to mosquito larvae habitats, like storm water catch basins and old tires. The emulsions also allow the oil droplets to disperse in water, contrary to their natural tendency. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of their contacting and killing the larvae, improving control of the young pests.

In laboratory trials, exposure to the essential oil emulsions killed the larvae of yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) in 24 hours. The number that died upon exposure was dependent on the type of oil and formulation used, noted Muturi, who reported the findings in the October 2019 issue of the journal Insects together with NCAUR colleagues William Hay, Robert Behle and Gordon Selling.

Ultimately, the team envisions using the essential oil emulsions as part of an integrated approach to controlling mosquitoes and preventing the diseases they can spread, such as West Nile virus, yellow fever, dengue and Zika.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission