Insecticidal and repellent effect of cinnamon oil on flies associated with livestock

Objective. Due to the increased parasitic resistance, there is a need to explore alternative insecticides, including natural products, such essential oils. In this sense, the aim of this study was to evaluate, for the first time, the insecticidal and repellent effect of Cinnamomun zeylanicum (free and nanoemulsion forms) in vitro and in vivo. Materials and methods. For that, the insecticidal effect of the free form was tested at 1.0, 5.0 and 10%, while the nanoemulsion form was tested at 0.5, 1.0 and 5.0% against adult house flies, Musca domestica. For validation of the test, the flies were sprayed with the diluent (water and triton 10%) and with blank nanoemulsion (without C. zeylanicum essential oil). Moreover, in vivo test was performed using cows naturally infested with Haemotobia irritans. Results. The results demonstrated that cinnamon oil (10%) and the nanoemulsion (5%) were 100% effective against M. domestica after 90 minutes of exposure. The repellent effect was tested in vivo using 5% of cinnamon oil on Holstein cows naturally infested by Haemotobia irritans. The flies were counted at 0, 1, 2, 3, 9 and 24 h after cinnamon oil treatment. It was verified significant decrease (p<0.05) in the number of flies on cows sprayed with cinnamon in all times. Conclusions. Based on these results, C. zeylanicum showed insecticidal effect (in vitro) against domestic flies and repellent effect (in vivo) against the horn fly.