The medicinal use of essential oils and their components for treating lice and mite infestations

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that essential oils, and in particular, pennyroyal, tea tree and anise, have potent insecticidal and acaricidal (mite-killing) activity. The individual components of essential oils are now being investigated in order to give a rational basis to discover which essential oils may prove to be the most effective all-round agents for killing headlice and their eggs, and treating scabies, and for eliminating house dust mites, a major cause of asthma.