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Repellent activity against Aedes aegypti and metabolomic profiling of Myrica gale L. essential oils from Irish boglands
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  • Published: 10 March 2026

Repellent activity against Aedes aegypti and metabolomic profiling of Myrica gale L. essential oils from Irish boglands

  • Sophie E. Whyms1 na1,
  • Shipra Nagar1 na1,
  • Hailey A. Luker2 na1,
  • April D. Lopez2,
  • Maria Pigott1,
  • Trevor R. Hodkinson3,
  • Helen Sheridan1,
  • Immo A. Hansen2 &
  • …
  • John J. Walsh1 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Chemical biology
  • Chemistry
  • Drug discovery
  • Metabolomics
  • Natural products
  • Screening
  • Small molecules
  • Viral infection

Abstract

Bog myrtle (Myrica gale L.) is an ethnobotanically significant bogland plant with historic use as an insect repellent. Essential oils, hydro-distilled from bog myrtle leaves and fruits collected from four locations in Ireland, were analysed by GC-MS and tested for repellence against Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito. Contact (arm-in-cage) and spatial (Y-tube olfactometer) repellence assays were used. Commercial essential oils from M. gale, Myrtus communis and Syzygium aromaticum (clove oil) were also tested. The most effective bog myrtle essential oil in both assays was a Clevenger-hydro-distilled fruit oil, MG4C. Whilst exhibiting significant mean complete protection time in the arm-in-cage assay, it also exhibited strong spatial repellence in the Y-tube olfactometer. Repellence in M. gale samples was linked to a higher monoterpene content reflected by the monoterpene to sesquiterpene (M/S) ratio calculated using GC-MS data. Furthermore, metabolomic analysis linked spatial repellence to α-phellandrene and myrcene, whilst quantification of key terpenes alluded to delta-3-carene, β-pinene, γ-terpinene and camphene potentially contributing to the observed effects. This study establishes that specific bog myrtle essential oils are effective mosquito repellents.

Data availability

The sequence dataset generated and analysed during the current study is available in the GenBank repository, under accession numbers PV150706, PV150707, PV150708, PV150709, PV150710 [27-31]. Other datasets generated and analysed during this study are available from corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge Department of Justice, Ireland for funding the project ‘Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacy from Bogland Species (UNPBS)’ under grant number DOJProject209825 and by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, grant numbers R35GM144049 and T32GM148394.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Sophie E. Whyms, Shipra Nagar and Hailey A. Luker contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NatPro Centre, Trinity College Dublin, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dublin 02, D02 PN40, Dublin, Ireland

    Sophie E. Whyms, Shipra Nagar, Maria Pigott, Helen Sheridan & John J. Walsh

  2. Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, 1200 S. Horseshoe Dr., Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    Hailey A. Luker, April D. Lopez & Immo A. Hansen

  3. Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 02, D02 PN40, Dublin, Ireland

    Trevor R. Hodkinson

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Contributions

SW: conceptualisation; plant material collection; DNA extraction, sequencing and analysis; plant identification; essential oil extraction by Clevenger hydro-distillation; performed arm-in-cage and Y-tube olfactometer assays; manuscript writing, editing and reviewing. SN: conceptualisation; GC-MS analysis; data curation; multivariate data analysis; manuscript writing, editing and reviewing. HAL: conceptualisation; performed arm-in-cage and Y-tube olfactometer assays; manuscript editing and reviewing. ADL: assisted in the primary arm-in-cage study; manuscript editing and reviewing. MP: plant material collection; essential oil extraction by microwave–assisted hydro-distillation; manuscript editing and reviewing. TH: provided lab facility for DNA isolation and sequencing; manuscript editing and reviewing. HS: conceptualisation; funding acquisition; manuscript editing and reviewing. IAH: conceptualisation; provided infrastructure for performing arm-in-cage and Y-tube assays; manuscript reviewing and editing. JW: conceptualisation; manuscript editing and reviewing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John J. Walsh.

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Whyms, S.E., Nagar, S., Luker, H.A. et al. Repellent activity against Aedes aegypti and metabolomic profiling of Myrica gale L. essential oils from Irish boglands. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37275-7

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  • Received: 24 June 2025

  • Accepted: 20 January 2026

  • Published: 10 March 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-37275-7

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Keywords

  • Bog myrtle
  • Essential oils
  • Insect-repellent
  • Multivariate data analysis
  • Y-tube olfactometer
  • Arm-in-cage
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