Herbal Insecticides, Repellents and Biomedicines: Effectiveness and Commercialization

Dr. Vijay Veer is a renowned defence Scientist who is well-known for his contributions to insect ecology, taxonomy and medical entomology. He has more than 38 years of research experience and has developed many products and technologies for the benefit of the armed forces. He has developed Defender Net, the first indigenous long lasting insecticidal net, which offers protection from malaria, Japanese encephalitis, dengue, filariasis and other insect borne diseases.  His studies on pests of defence importance have led to the development of highly effective pest control products namely, Diethyl Phenyl Acetamide (DEPA – a mosquito repellent), Wool Care, Ratox, Roachtox and ovitraps. He has contributed immensely towards our understanding on forest pests, thrips, dermestid beetles and tabanid flies and has described many new insect genera and species. He has 25 patents, 8 books, several book chapters and over 155 research publications in national and international journals. He wasa member of GFAST, a DRDO think-tank, representing Life Sciences. He is presently the director of Defence Research Laboratory (DRL), Tezpur, India. DRL, under his able leadership, has successfully developed an array of products and technologies including Dentrap, Toxmos, Biotank cum reed bed system, Capsispray (chilli spray for self defence), Capsigrenade (chilli grenade for mob dispersal) and DrlPure (water purification unit). Currently he is pursuing the field of semiochemicals and molecular taxonomy.Dr. Reji Gopalakrishnan is a DRDO Scientist at the Defence Research Laboratory, Tezpur, India. He studied the simulation of insect population dynamics, pest damage on crop plants and pest-weather relationships during his masters and doctoral research at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He has more than 12 years of research experience in entomology and has one patent and many research publications in national and international journals. He is presently working on the development of disease vector monitoring tools and insect repellents. He has developed Dentrap, which is a trapping device for dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and filariasis vectors and Toxmos, which is an aerosol formulation for application onto fabrics for personal protection from mosquitoes and other biting insects.