Study summary
Complete Protection Time of a 30% Citriodiol (oil of lemon eucalyptus) repellent against three species of ticks (ARCTEC trial, NCT03708120)
ARCTEC (London) for Citrefine International
Read the original paper- Study type
- Rct
- Year
- 2019
- Species tested
- Ixodes scapularis, Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis
- Published in
- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03708120 (sponsor-reported; not peer-reviewed)
- Evidence strength
- Limited evidence
How it was tested
A single-arm study that first set a realistic consumer application dose, then exposed treated forearms to lab-reared ticks at intervals across a 10-hour window to find when protection failed.
Summary
A sponsor-run trial (registered as NCT03708120) measuring how long a consumer 30% Citriodiol spray, the refined oil-of-lemon-eucalyptus active, protects skin against three tick species. It is the only skin complete-protection-time tick study for OLE, but its results were never independently published.
Key findings
No results are posted in the trial registry. The only figures come from the sponsor and press coverage: 8 hours of complete protection with 95% repellency out to 10 hours. Because nothing was peer-reviewed or posted, these should be treated as sponsor-reported and unverified.
Limitations
Single-arm with no DEET comparator, laboratory rather than field ticks, industry-sponsored, and unpublished, so the effect estimates cannot be scrutinized.