Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Designated organic active ingredient containing – C-o-group doai
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-19
2003-12-09
Pak, John (Department: 1616)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Designated organic active ingredient containing
C-o-group doai
C514S772000, C514S782000, C514S785000, C514S786000, C514S919000, C424S405000, C424SDIG001
Reexamination Certificate
active
06660775
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and compositions for inhibiting the ability of biting midges to locate or track a target, such as an animal or human body, by scent detection. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of certain compounds in compositions to inhibit biting midges' ability to detect a target by scent detection.
BACKGROUND
As anyone that has significant outdoor experience can attest, biting midges can be terribly annoying and amount to a significant problem. Their bites can produce burning and itching welts. Biting midges can have a significant economic impact since their presence often significantly discourages tourism in certain regions, particularly coastal regions where they may occur in large numbers.
These minute biting insects are also known commonly as “sandflies”, “no-see-ums, “hequenes” in Mexico and “punkies” in Great Britain. Biting midges are particularly abundant in areas where there are mangrove swamps or salt marshes. In the United States they are particularly abundant in coastal Florida and North Carolina. Midges belong to the insect order Diptera (2-winged flies), family Ceratopogonidae, genus Leptoconops and Culicoides. It is only the female of this species that bites and takes blood, and the time of greatest biting activity is generally around dawn or dusk.
Of the many species of biting midges of the genus Cucicoides, at least about 111 species, certain prevalent species, such as
Culicoides furens
and
Culicoides barbosai
species, are known to be vectors of a human nematode parasite,
Mansonella ozzardi.
This worm lives primarily in the blood and female midges ingest the microfilariae (juvenile forms) when they take blood and then transmit the parasite to uninfected persons. The species
Leptoconops becquaerti,
of the genus Leptconops prevalent in Costa Rica, is known to transmit a filarial worm in humans called
Dipeialoneina ozzardi. Culicoides arabae, Culicoides foxi
and
Culicoides barbosai
have been collected from horses and mules and
Culicoides insignis
collected from cattle and are a problem for these animals.
Compounds, compositions and formulations for protecting human beings from being bitten by biting midges are known in the art. Generally, these compounds, compositions and formulations are based on their ability to persist on the skin of the person upon topical or surface application for a time sufficient to repel biting midges. Numerous adjuvant materials have been added to biting midge repellents to increase the persistence of the repellents to the skin of a person. Additionally, low volume spraying of chemical insecticides has been employed, but not with great success. Moreover, spraying of such insecticidal chemicals is environmentally and from a health-wise standpoint undesirable. However, despite the various attempts to improve the repelling activity of the known biting midge repellents, these attempts have generally not been successful, as almost anyone who has used such biting midge repellents can attest.
Thus, the art has been searching for new and more effective repellents against biting midges. However, the search for more effective biting midge repellents has not generally been met with success since most biting midge repellents have been found only to possess a limited degree of repellency and are generally not particularly effective. There is, therefore, a need for more effective means to deter biting midges from locating and biting humans and other targets such as birds and livestock. from locating and biting humans and other targets such as birds and livestock. Moreover, this need has recently become more acute and urgent because biting midges have been discovered to be carriers of significant diseases that can be passed on to a target by the biting midges biting the target. A further need is to be able to reduce or eliminate the need to use environmentally unfriendly pesticides.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have discovered that compounds, compositions and formulations heretofore proposed as repellents for biting midges have lacked the necessary efficacy due to the ability of biting midges to locate and be drawn to the targets by olfactory emissions of the target. Thus, if a biting midge enters a zone or space where a potential target is located, the biting midge can be attracted to the target by olfactory emissions of the target and, this olfactory attraction is sufficient to overcome any repellency activity of the repellent compound, composition or formulation applied on the target. Therefore, the present invention provides compositions and formulations containing compounds usable in methods and apparatus for inhibiting the olfactory target tracking abilities of biting midges when an effective amount of the inhibiting compound(s) is/are dispersed in a three dimensional atmospheric space.
According to this invention, the ability of biting midges to locate a target is inhibited by dispensing into a spatial area an inhibiting effective amount of at least one inhibiting compound selected from the group consisting of 3-methyl-1-alkene-3-ols of the formula:
and 3-methyl-1-alkyn-3-ols of the formula:
wherein R
1
and R
2
are each independently a saturated or unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon group containing from 1 to about 12 carbon atoms.
The inhibiting compound can be dispensed into the three dimensional atmospheric space by any suitable means sufficient to provide an inhibiting effective amount of the inhibiting compound(s). Such dispensing means includes, for example, evaporation, atomization and ionic dispersion of the inhibiting compound from any suitable composition or formulation. Such composition or formulation will generally comprise a base vehicle containing at least one of the inhibiting compounds.
DETAILED SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have discovered that if an effective amount of at least one inhibiting compound selected from the group consisting of 3-methyl-1-alkene-3-ols of the formula:
and 3-methyl-1-alkyn-3-ols of the formula:
wherein R
1
and R
2
are each independently a saturated or unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon group containing from 1 to about 12 carbon atoms is dispensed into the atmosphere of a three dimensional environmental space, the ability of biting midges to locate and track a target, such as humans, birds or livestock, by the target's olfactory emissions is inhibited.
Any suitable 3-methyl-1-alkene-3-ols or 3-methyl-1-alkyn-3-ol of the formulas may be employed in the method, compositions and apparatus of this invention. Especially suitable inhibiting compounds are nerolidol, 3-methyl-1-octen-3-ol, linalool and dehydrolinalool. Depending on the particular biting midge species, either the 3-methyl-1-alkyn-3-ols or the 3-methyl-1-alkene-3-ols are better inhibitors than the other class of components and will be preferred for that species of biting midge. The inhibiting compounds may be utilized singly or as mixtures of two or more of such compounds.
Any suitable inhibiting effective amount of the inhibiting compound(s) may be employed. Such inhibiting effective amounts can include amounts, based on the square footage of land or base surface area of the environmental area to be treated, within the range of from about 0.000005 g/hr/ft
2
to about 0.004 g/hr/ft
2
, preferably amounts within the range of from about 0.00015 g/hr/ft
2
to about 0.0002 g/hr/ft
2
, and especially an amount of about 0.00016 g/hr/ft
2
.
The inhibiting compounds for use in this invention may be provided in an essentially pure form of the inhibiting compounds or as a component of a natural essential oil having a concentration of an inhibiting compound sufficient to make it practical and feasible to dispense an inhibiting effective amount of inhibiting compound. Generally, the essential oil will contain a concentration of the inhibiting compound of at least about 1%, preferably at least about 5%, and especially at least about 50% by weight. For example, the inhibiting compound can be provided as a synthetically produced, essentially pure co
Bedoukian Robert H.
Kline Daniel L.
Maloney Robert E.
Nolen James A.
BioSensory, Inc.
Ohlandt Greeley Ruggiero & Perle LLP
Pak John
Rauchfuss, Jr. George W.
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